Gun owners? Gov't says must be drug trafficking.

Imagine you are a juror in the federal trial of five people charged with growing and distributing marijuana in northeastern Washington. The prosecution cannot present any direct evidence that the defendants sold marijuana to anyone, and the defendants say they were growing all 74 plants for their own personal use. A bit of arithmetic reveals that the total number of plants comes to just under 15 per defendant, which happens to be the presumptive limit for patients under Washington's medical marijuana law. Yet no one says anything about medical marijuana during the trial.

What you don't realize is that the defense attorneys have been forbidden to discuss their clients' reliance on Washington's law, since federal law bans marijuana for all purposes. You also do not realize that each of the defendants faces at least 10 years in federal prison, because their lawyers are not allowed to talk about that either. And despite your suspicion that the defendants were growing marijuana for medical use, you are told that your job is to determine whether they violated federal law, which they undeniably did.

In framing that indictment, prosecutors made sure the defendants would qualify for prison sentences of at least 10 years. Speculating about previous harvests, they charged Harvey et al. with growing a total of at least 100 plants, which triggers a five-year mandatory minimum. They also noted that the Harveys, like <strong>many people in eastern Washington, had guns in their house, which according to the government means the defendants possessed firearms "in furtherance of" a drug trafficking crime</strong>. That qualifies them for another five years, and the two sentences must be served consecutively. Three other charges in the indictment—conspiracy to grow marijuana, distribution of marijuana, and "maintaining a place…for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing, and using marijuana"—could make the defendants' sentences even longer.

Please see http://reason.com/archives/2015/02/02/jurors-cant-know-pot-growers-are-p... also http://politicaloutcast.com/2015/02/jury-banned-hearing-defendants-trial/ also http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/06/harvey-family-marijuana-court_n...