According to The Washington Post, the 19-year-old recent high school graduate is preparing for college this fall. But at the same time, he’s facing down a possible federal prison sentence that could derail his future.

Bear in mind: This is the state where the drug has been legal for adult recreational use since 2014. But state law has never reconciled with federal law, which still classifies it as a Schedule I narcotic, which means it’s on par with heroin. Back in 2013, the U.S. Justice Department issued a memorandum that announced a hands-off policy with regard to state-level cannabis laws. However, that memo included a provision that directed prosecutors to continue taking on cases that involve distributing marijuana to minors. And that’s where this case picks up.

The criminal defense attorney representing the 19-year-old defendant says it started when a student at a small high school was caught with marijuana in his backpack. That student informed authorities that it was defendant who had sold it to him.

The amount was just 1 gram, enough for one typical marijuana joint, maybe two at the most.

For this, federal prosecutors filed charges against the teen for knowingly and intentionally possessing marijuana. He was not charged with sale of the drug to a minor, presumably because there wasn’t enough evidence. However, the federal charges stem from the fact that the reported possession took place at a boarding school for Native American students that is operated by the federal Bureau of Indiana Education.

Federal and state lawmakers are now weighing in, calling the prosecution’s efforts an overreach. For example, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, (D-Ore.), chastised prosecutors by asserting these types of situations were better left in the hands of the state. U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, also of Oregon, said that while he doesn’t like it that minors use marijuana, a situation like this, with federal prosecutors getting involved over a single gram of pot, is a “misallocation of resources.”

Federal prosecutors haven’t spoken about the issue, citing the ongoing investigation, but his defense attorney noted prosecutors had expected the teen to simply plead guilty and enter into a drug treatment program that would last six months. However, his lawyer announced he and his client would fight the charges.

Our California marijuana lawyers know that this decision could be risky, given the fact that a conviction could result in a maximum one-year prison stint, plus a federal criminal conviction, which could affect the teen’s ability to get a student loan, find a place to live or land a job.

Indeed, much of the harm caused to youth by marijuana comes not from the actual drug, but from the punishment meted out merely for possession of it.

It was reported last year by the federal Monitoring the Future survey that approximately one-half of U.S. high school seniors have used marijuana at some point in the past. Of those, very few are actually arrested or criminally convicted of a marijuana-related charge. Even more rare is it for them to face down federal marijuana charges.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

An Oregon teen is facing federal drug charges over a single gram of marijuana, Aug. 3, 2016, By Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post

More Blog Entries:

Lt. Gov. Newsome: Campaign for Cannabis Legalization in November, July 9, 2016, California Marijuana Lawyer Blog

Inevitably, one of the top arguments that start making its way to the headlines is the risk that legalization poses to our nation’s youth. Teens in particular, it is argued, are impressionable, vulnerable and will be led down a dark path if the drug is more readily available to adults.

But here’s the truth of the matter: As we start to collect data about teen marijuana use and legalization, we begin to see the correlation – if any – is that legalization actually drive down teen use.

That’s right: When we take the fear, propaganda and intolerance out of the equation, teen marijuana use actually fell.

In 1996, just before California passed its groundbreaking medical marijuana reform measure, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) asked how we could expect our children to reject drugs when some authorities are telling them illegal drugs should no longer be illegal, but rather be used to help people who are sick. He insisted this ambivalent message was not one we could afford.

Drug czars for both George W. Bush and Obama (the first one, anyway) questioned the message we’d be sending to teenagers when you tell them marijuana is medicine. The risks of the drug, they said, were going to be misunderstood and downplayed. They lamented the fact that when surveyed, young people increasingly did not believe those who smoked pot were “doing a great disservice to themselves.” The less harmful teens though marijuana to be, the theory went, the more likely they would be to try it themselves.

However, that theory has been proven to have largely missed the mark.

A recent study released by Monitoring the Future revealed shifting attitudes toward marijuana among teens in 8th, 10th and 12th grade. Between 1996 and 2015, the number who disapproved of regular or even occasional marijuana use fell by more than 30 percent. And yet, during that same time frame, the number of those teens who reported using the drug themselves actually declined, from 21.9 percent to 21.3 percent. Among younger students (the 8th graders) especially, the decline was even stepper – from 20.4 percent to 14.8 percent.

Another study published in 2014 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry revealed past-year use of marijuana by teens 12 to 17 fell 13.2 percent between 2002 and 2013. What’s more, the number of “marijuana use disorders” among teens fell by nearly a quarter during that same time frame.

There could be some other factors at play, as the overall number of conduct problems among teens has also fallen. There has during this time been a marked reduction in childhood lead exposure, improved diagnosis and treatment of childhood mental health disorders and better school-based programs and state laws to prevent bullying.

Still, one thing we can say definitively is that marijuana legalization laws did not have the impact many critics feared. This should be considered as we weigh further expanding access to marijuana in California and beyond.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

As Fear and Intolerance of Marijuana Declined, So Did Adolescent Use, June 2, 2016, By Jacob Sullum, Forbes

More Blog Entries:

Congress Approves Medical Marijuana for Veterans, May 25, 2016, Los Angeles Marijuana Lawyer Blog

And yet, as it was recently reported by The Village Voice, the number of marijuana arrests in state in 2013 was the highest of any other in the country. With an average of more than 535 marijuana arrests per 100,000 people, it was more than double the national average.

Then in 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio updated police policy to allow officers to issue a summons rather than initiate an arrest for anyone caught with 25 grams or less. That slashed the number of misdemeanor marijuana arrests virtually overnight by nearly 60 percent between 2014 and 2015.

But now, the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services indicates those statistics have risen once again.

The NYPD marijuana arrests involving low-level possession and sales for the first three months of this year spiked 30 percent. There were 5,311 such arrests from January to March 2016, compared to 3,973 during the same time frame a year ago.

What’s going on?

If an eight-year veteran of the force and plaintiff in a pending class action lawsuit is to be believed, the issue is the department’s heavy reliance on “quota-based policing,” and the fact that the police department is being used to drum up dollars for the city. Bear in mind, the average misdemeanor arrest allows the city to rake in about $2,000.

For a long time, officers could lean on “Stop-and-Frisk” policies (otherwise known as “Terry Stops”) in which police routinely stopped and questioned pedestrians – more often than not, African Americans and Latinos – and initiated a “voluntary” search that could lead to an arrest. But de Blasio promised to scrap the program in 2014 amid widespread criticism.

The class action lawsuit plaintiff alleges every officer on the force is expected to make five arrests monthly. Marijuana offenses, he said, are the “low-hanging fruit.”

Another serious issue is that once again, the majority of defendants in these cases, according to the Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP), are black. The director of PROP alleges the high-profile reforms intended to get rid of racial profiling haven’t meant much to the average officer on the streets.

The executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) was quoted as saying the department’s current commissioner Bill Bratton, who has been touting the evils of marijuana in a series of recent public statements. Bratton was quoted as saying that marijuana was the driving force behind the “vast majority” of violent crimes in the city. He put the drug on par with heroin in terms of danger.

But even top-level brass at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration concede heroin is “clearly” more harmful than cannabis, and in fact, may even be much safer than alcohol in many respects.

Still that kind of attitude – and public statement – powers police, prosecutors and others in the system to continue the marijuana shakedown of low-level offenders.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

If Marijuana is decriminalized in NYC, then why are possession arrests on the rise? June 1, 2016, By Anita Abedian, The Village Voice

More Blog Entries:

Driver Allegedly High on Medical Marijuana Caused Crash Resulting in Trooper’s Death, June 1, 2016, L.A. Marijuana Arrest Lawyer Blog

That’s according to the latest from The Coloradoan, which also noted the district court judge tacked on two years of probation as well.

Defendant had pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of providing marijuana to a person who was younger than 21. However, she was deemed not guilty of the felony charge of witness tampering.

Our L.A. marijuana defense lawyers know that had this case unfolded in California, this mother would likely be looking at a more serious charge. That’s because marijuana is only legal via medical prescription from a doctor. Distributing a Schedule I narcotic to someone without a prescription is a crime that becomes much more serious when the person receiving the drug is a minor. She likely would have been looking at felony charges had the case been filed here in Orange County.

But in Colorado, where this case occurred, marijuana is legal for recreational use. But just like alcohol, marijuana is regulated to prevent minors from having ready access – unless there is a medical reason for it and they have a doctor’s prescription.

The incident in question occurred in April 2015. It was then the 39-year-old defendant’s 19-year-old son threw himself out of a third-story window. It occurred shortly after 9 p.m. He suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries as a result of his fall.

The teen reportedly admitted to investigators that he had consumed edible marijuana. Investigators already knew that he had consumed it at some point because a drug test completed at the hospital revealed it was the only drug in his system. However, it was only later that he conceded he had consumed the drug that night and in edible form. At the time, he had refused to say who supplied him with the pot brownie.

The case was reminiscent of a 2014 case in which a 19-year-old college student from Wyoming plummeted to his death in Denver after jumping from his hotel room window while under the influence of a cannabis-infused cookie. His autopsy indicated intoxication by marijuana was a significant contributing factor.

Now this case – and another in which a Colorado man accused of murdering his wife blames a marijuana-infused candy he consumed – are raising questions about if and how states and the federal government should regulate edible marijuana products.

According to the news report, the teen’s mother purchased the marijuana for his roommate, who was also then just 19.

The witness tampering charge stemmed from a statement by the roommate to police in which he said the injured teen urged him to lie about where he’d gotten the brownie.

At her sentencing hearing, defendant insisted she thought that a marijuana edible she purchased from a dispensary would be safe and she would never have purchased it if she had known this type of reaction was possible.

The judge indicated that while he believed defendant to be “a good person,” as noted by the numerous individuals who testified on her behalf as to her character, he noted that in a pre-sentencing self-evaluation, she indicated there was “no victim” for her alleged crime. The judge was quick to say this was not a victimless crime.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

30 days in jail for mom in marijuana window-jumper case, June 1, 2016, By Jacy Marmaduke, The Coloradoan

More Blog Entries:

LA County Democratic Party Endorses Adult Use of Marijuana Act, May 23, 2016, Orange County Marijuana Lawyer Blog