Mr. Lee,

I see you changed your lazy and incompetent article to be more brief, but that just reveals even more how little you actually know of what you are reporting.  You may have cut the content down to four paragraphs, but you have just as many glaring mistakes in less content.  You also fail to capture the reality of the situation.

In the first paragraph you get the charges wrong in which I was convicted of.  Considering this is the cornerstone of your article that is pretty disturbing.  You write that I am of El Sobrante.  Also incorrect.  You state that we were 'a large marijuana-candymaker. Actually we made several different products other than candy.  We prefer the terminology of food-based medicines or even nutriceuticals if you want to sound a bit more educated.  Cannabis based food products would have even worked.  You go on to inaccurately state Jessica Sanders sentence.  For some reason you waste your word count on letting the world know that the dishwasher was the son of Osha Neeumann.  Why?  Where is the relevance?  

Your tone is still indifferent and it would almost seem you have an agenda in your choice of content and sensationalist lies.  It would be a better service to your readership if you just quit reporting all together.  It would seem as if you have lost your passion for the profession and should probably leave it to someone who actually wants to work on the stories they write about.  The Chronicle deserves more and the community deserves a better effort.  You are part of the growing problem surrounding media's inherent indifference to the truth and continue to make the Chronicle more into a penny press rag of lies rather than the upstanding journalistic outfit it once was.

My offer still stands if you would like to ever do a real interview and get your facts straight.  You should be even more ashamed of this printed piece, as you have managed to create an article with more inaccuracies per word capita than your original lazy and incompetent piece.  Congratulations.  It is a shame that they wasted ink and paper on this poorly written article.  Good day, sir.


Mickey Martin
Tainted Compassion Director

Mr. Lee, 

I am Mickey Martin, the person you wrote your "Wonka of Weed" article about. This is really a shameful piece of writing, as you have obviously done no work to report the truth and have continually just regurgitated stories of the past and obviously plagiarized the rest of the story to fill in the blanks. It would seem you have done a disservice to a large contingent of your readership by not investing any real time and energy, so that your story would more accurately portray the truth. You cannot even get my age right. I am currently 34. Yes. It has been a year since you wrote your infamously inaccurate story originally about my case. 

I even wrote you in March before my plea deal to see if you wanted to do an interview, but you carelessly reprinted more of the same irrelevant facts, biased opinion in reporting of truth, and misleading tone that underscores the community support that spared me from incarceration. Had you bothered to show up for the press conference prior, or even been in the courtroom, you would have seen a much different story than the one you sparsely reported. You would have seen a group of fifty activists and supporters stand in unity, as a Federal Judge stunned the community by inquiring about the legitimacy of State law in this case. You would have seen that the courtroom was in tears and stood in ovation, clapping for this small victory, at the end of the sentencing.

 You would have seen the great Tony Serra masterfully detail the efficacy of cannabis based medications and the importance of food-based medications in that process. You would have seen a moving presentation of the truth about medical cannabis laws. You would have seen a federal judge use reason and compassion in deriving her sentence for myself and a co-worker. You may have even had a good laugh, as my eccentric attorney explained my ownership of a bouncer business that does charitable deeds for children's organizations. You would have seen my lead attorney, Sara Zalkin, speak to the manner in which dealing with legislation regarding the medical cannabis is like, "banging our head against the wall." 

Yes. You could have seen a lot. Unfortunately you did not and when called upon to report about the case further you decided to use verbatim several paragraphs from your original articles and mixed in some lackluster ideas that were most likely picked from other reporters work. It is disingenuous and you should know better. I was the sports editor for the Laney Tower newspaper at Laney College in Oakland for a semester, and even I would know better. 

In the future if you decide to write any follow up articles, or similar articles about others involved in providing cannabis medications to the sick and dying in California, please do some real work and try to get the story accurate for once. Quit depending on overzealous reports from agents and officers, or at least balance your story by contacting Americans for Safe Access. Their number is 510-251-1856. Please use it, as they are a valuable resource and very media friendly. 

If you still want to contact me to do an interview I would be glad to educate you further on what is really going on in the world of medical cannabis. You may be surprised. My real advice to you is that if you are going to do something in this world, anything, even writing a story about cannabis medicines which may not be what you intended to do with your life, put your best foot forward and give it some real effort. There are many readers of your paper that would appreciate the truth.

 Kind Regards, 

Mickey Martin 

Tainted Compassion Director

(03-27) 18:27 PDT OAKLAND -- The owner of an Oakland factory that produced marijuana candy with names like Buddafinga and Mr. Greenbud has pleaded guilty to conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana, authorities said today. Michael Martin, 33, of El Sobrante entered a guilty plea at a hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Oakland. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 2 by Judge Claudia Wilken. Martin is the owner of Tainted Inc., which started as a boutique business that made chocolate truffles and grew into a large marijuana-candy maker that bought chocolate by the ton, authorities said. Tainted employee Jessica Sanders has been charged with illegally using a phone to distribute marijuana, a felony, while employees Michael Anderson and Diallo McLinn - the son of longtime Berkeley peace activist Osha Neumann of Berkeley - were each charged with a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession. Authorities said Tainted made candies with names that played off popular legal treats: Buddafinga, Mr. Greenbud, Stoners. The business also made pot-laced items such as cookies, ice cream, peanut butter, granola bars and barbecue sauce, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. When the federal government charged Tainted Inc.'s owner and employees in September, authorities said the company supplied the marijuana-laced candies to cannabis clubs in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Amsterdam. Before surrendering to face the charges in October, Martin blasted the U.S. government for what he called an unfair attack by federal bullies on ailing patients who rely on medical marijuana. Martin said he joined the medical-marijuana movement after seeing his father die painfully of prostate cancer in 2002 after a 10-year battle. His father refused to use marijuana because of a federal ban on all types of the drug. Martin said he uses medical marijuana to ease pain after a fall left him with seven screws and a steel plate in his left heel. He said he also has degenerative cartilage in his right knee. In September, federal agents raided his factory on the 900 block of 61st Street in North Oakland and a building on the 300 block of 40th Street where marijuana was grown. The investigation bears similarities to DEA raids in Oakland in 2006 in which five people connected with a company called Beyond Bomb were convicted of making marijuana-laced treats with names like Munchy Way, Rasta Reece's and Puff-a-Mint Pattie. In federal marijuana cases, defense attorneys are barred from telling jurors that companies supply medical cannabis products through licensed dispensaries to qualified patients. Proposition 215, the initiative approved in 1996 by state voters, legalized growing and using marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor's recommendation. Under federal law, marijuana used for any purpose is illegal. E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.