Medical marijuana activist convicted of growing 24,000 pot plants

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, September 6, 2008

A federal court jury has convicted a medical marijuana activist of illegally growing more than 24,000 pot plants that were clearly visible from a highway near his home in Lake County.

Federal prosecutors said Charles "Eddy" Lepp, 56, faces a mandatory sentence of at least 10 years in prison after the jury in San Francisco found him guilty Tuesday of conspiracy and cultivation with the intent to distribute marijuana. Sentencing is scheduled Dec. 1.

Lepp is a longtime medical marijuana advocate whose battles with the government over his prosecution won him a "freedom fighter" award from High Times Magazine.

He was arrested in 2004 after federal agents said they found 32,500 marijuana plants in gardens near his home in Upper Lake. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled that the seizure was based on an invalid warrant, but allowed prosecutors to offer evidence of more than 24,000 plants that were in plain view of Highway 20.

Lepp also argued that, as a Rastafarian minister, he had a religious right to grow and use marijuana, a sacrament to his faith. He claimed his church had 2,500 members who were all sharecroppers of the plants.

But Patel barred him from using religion as a defense to the charges in a pretrial ruling Aug. 14. She said an individual charged with possession for personal use might be allowed to argue that marijuana was central to his faith. Lepp, however, could not credibly claim that his religion compelled him to distribute thousands of plants to unidentified parishioners, the judge said.

Defense lawyer Michael Hinckley said Lepp would appeal on the religious issue and perhaps on other grounds as well. He said Lepp, whose wife and father both died of cancer, believes strongly in the religious and medical use of marijuana.

Noting that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld such federal prosecutions despite California's medical marijuana law, Hinckley said, "As long as the state and federal government are in conflict on this issue, unfortunate results like this are going to continue to occur."

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WOW! Thats a lot of plants to try and explain why you are growing. I would love to have seen them. I bet they looked awesome.

i would sleep in them and eat buds with my sandwitches

Thats a cool idea you have a bip plot of land then you have a bunch of sharecroppers then everyone is working together to beter the one plot other then over hundred

I know in california if you have a med card you can veg up to 10 plants, but can only have 5 in full bloom. This guy was way out of control LOL

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every thing I say is definitly a lie, don't trust me.
http://www.rollitup.org/general-mari...ml#post3216785

i read an article bout eddy lepp a while back, feel bad for him , and yeah he wasnt all too stealthy, but think about it, at least the dude stood up for what he believed...sounds kinda like he was just like "fuck the feds, im growing 24000, in plain sight" haha

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Can you imagine a mite outbreak with such a grow.

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I'd giva ya everything I got . . . for little piece of mind

i dont want to lol

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The fucked up part is how a judge can tell you what you can and can not say in your own defense to a jury of your peers.

Ed Rosenthal never would have been convicted if he was allowed to tell the truth to the jury but a judge wouldn't let him offer evidence that would have exonerated him...FUCKED UP

Fuck the federal government. Maybe Barack Obama will do something about it when he forces the DEA to stop raiding medical marijuana patients. Wasn't this guy a medical marijuana patient?

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I don't have it with me, but I keep a good attitude.