It is still setting in, as I watch myself on the news, that I am a lucky man.  I am relieved that I was spared incarceration for my role in providing cannabis based food-products to patients in California.  I was sentenced today to one-year house arrest, one-year in a halfway house, five years probation, and given a lenient sentence considering I was facing a decade in prison with this all began.  I am grateful that I will be able to stay with my family and continue being a contributing part of society.  I would only hope that in the future other patients and providers will not suffer the long and exhaustive process that has consumed my life for the past year and will be a part of my routine for the next five years.  I am glad that today we found a small sliver of hope for the future, as there was a great deal of compassion and support in the courtroom with me.  Tomorrow begins my journey of serving my debt to society, but today I would like to thank each and every person that stood in solidarity behind me in my most trying time.  For those that were not able to make it the following is a copy of my words to the court:

I would like to offer this court my sincerest apologies that my mistake has lead to us being here today.

Singer/Songwriter Bob Dylan is quoted as saying,

“A mistake is to commit a misunderstanding.”

There are several misunderstandings that have lead me to ask for your leniency in deciding the fate of my future. Please do take them into consideration.

The first misunderstanding was with my body. At the age of twelve I was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of St. Joseph’s hospital in St. Louis, MO.  I was prescribed Ritalin for my Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  This medication made me feel socially awkward and unstable and I found at a young age that cannabis helped me focus much better and live a fuller life. In 2002 I suffered a great fall and shattered my heal requiring reconstructive surgery with 7 screws and a steel plate that will forever be a part of me.  My experience with traditional opiate-based painkillers was difficult, as I became addicted and risked high levels of toxicity.  I found cannabis based foods to be better for the naturopathic pain I endured and was reaffirmed of this by my doctors.

The second misunderstanding is with the many health and science organizations that have endorsed the use of cannabis as a medicine, such as the Institute of Medicine, The American College of Physicians, The American Academy of Addiction Psychology, The American Nurse Association and many more.  These organizations spend their lives dealing with medical issues and I believed to be sound in their judgments and affirmations of cannabis based medicines.

The third misunderstanding came from the voters of the State of California who passed laws some twelve years ago to allow for the use of cannabis as a medicine. Since then twelve other states have also passed similar legislation. The California State Assembly has passed legislation directing the proper use of cannabis as a medicine. The California Supreme Courts have affirmed patients’ rights in many different cases. The attorney general has recently passed guidelines to help guide law enforcement in the state and medical cannabis patients to good practices of cannabis use, which was affirmed by the U.S Attorney for this Northern District of California in a statement just last week in which he replied, ”The people that the attorney general identifies as legitimate medical-marijuana operators are the people we view as flying below our radar."  I believe it is the ambiguous misinformation like this that clearly creates areas of misunderstanding and puts the public in harms way.

The fourth and final misunderstanding comes from the many patients I have been lucky enough to get to know that have thanked me for my work. They still, to this day, tell me the benefits our products used to have in their lives and the relief they used to provide.  I can assure you that I never meant to be here today facing the justice system for providing medicine to these patients.  I never intended to be standing here facing sentencing for making cannabis based food products for sick and dying people.  But I will never forget the patient who was able to eat regularly because of our products, the woman whose husband was murdered and used our products to finally sleep through the night, or the friend of mine I saw firsthand benefit during breast cancer treatments from our products, as she was finally able to eat regularly.  These are the people I still worry about and who’s right to feel better is being put at risk everyday.

I stand here humbly asking you to find leniency for my actions and take into consideration the unique circumstances that have brought me here today. I understand that I broke federal law and that there are consequences for my actions.  I would like to ensure you that I have learned a valuable lesson throughout this process and have no intention of breaking these laws in the future.  I am a good person with good intentions and I would ask you, your honor, to please consider allowing me to continue to be a good husband, a good father, and a contributing member of this community by finding an appropriate sentence that may allow me to keep my family intact and be a positive force in society.

Thank you for your time.