Peron: Marijuana Battle Heats Up

By John Lindblom - Record-Bee Staff
Source: Record-Bee

Upper Lake -- Dennis Peron, co-author of the law that made medical marijuana legal in California, said Wednesday he believes Upper Lake medical marijuana grower Eddy Lepp has put his life in jeopardy by openly combating federal and local law enforcement officials. "They're out to get him, obviously," said Peron from his home in the East Bay when told that Lepp had been arrested for a third time early Wednesday morning during a raid by a team of federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers and Lake, Sonoma and Mendocino county officials.

Until Wednesday, Lepp was free on bail, pending his trial in federal court for charges stemming from an August 2004 raid of his Upper Lake property.

"They're going to kill him," Perron said repeatedly of Lepp. "I don't know if he wants to be a martyr, but he has set himself up as one."

Peron, who in 1996 joined in writing state Proposition 215, "The Compassionate Use Act" making marijuana (cannabis) legal in California as a treatment for illnesses ranging from cancer to migraine headaches, said he recently pulled back from the battle over legalizing marijuana.

The reason he gives is the increased intensity he says federal and local law enforcement officials have added to the fight of keeping marijuana illegal to keep their jobs.

"Let's get real, the whole war is on marijuana," he said. "It's not a war on drugs heroin and all that. Very few people use that stuff."

Peron likened the DEA's war on marijuana to Elliott Ness's Prohibition-era campaigns to eradicate illegal liquor.

"It's a worldwide global industry to wipe out marijuana, bigger than anyone can dream of," he said. "I don't think the state is involved; it's obviously the feds, because these (DEA) agents ... what do you think they make? They start out at fifty thou and go up from there.

"You are threatening somebody's livelihood. They're mad and Eddy is kind of in their face. So, they're hoping to sacrifice him at the altar of marijuana. They'll drive him to suicide, which is killing, or put him in a cell with a thug or a crazy who'll smash his head in."

Peron said he has taken a low-profile position because he feels threatened by the increased intensity over the marijuana issue.

"I got to pull back," he said. "Otherwise they're going to kill me. I'll be a warrior some other time, but you know there's no such thing as a dead warrior."

Source: Lake County Record-Bee (CA)
Author: John Lindblom - Record-Bee Staff
Published: Thursday, February 17, 2005
Copyright: 2005 Record-Bee
Contact: editorial@record-bee.com
Website: http://www.record-bee.com/
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20253.shtml

 

By Glenda Anderson, The Press Democrat
Source: Press Democrat

A Lake County medical marijuana activist with a penchant for pushing legal boundaries and flaunting his crop on magazine covers, was arrested for a fourth time Wednesday. Federal agents seized 6,000 plants and about 30 pounds of dried marijuana from Charles "Eddy" Lepp, who last year was arrested after openly growing 32,500 pot plants on his Upper Lake property along Highway 20.

The plants seized in his greenhouse Wednesday ranged from starters to adults, Lake County Narcotics Task Force Cmdr. Richard Russell said. Had all the plants been mature, the value of the confiscated pot would be more than $15 million, he said.

Lepp, who couldn't be contacted Wednesday, has insisted in the past that his plants are grown for legitimate medical users, including members of a ministry that he founded and called Eddy's Medicinal Gardens.

The loss of marijuana for medical users is unfortunate, said Dane Wilkins, executive director of the Northern California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

But he said he's not sure he can support Lepp's campaign to push the outer limits of Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative that legalized medical use of marijuana in California.

"He's definitely an activist and doing what he feels is the right thing to do and I need to support people like that," Wilkins said. "But at the same time, balance and responsibility are important too."

Lepp has long maintained what he's doing is legal.

Lepp and another man, Daniel Barnes, were arrested by federal agents on suspicion of felony cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale and taken to San Francisco for booking, Russell said. Two others were arrested on the property and taken to the county jail for refusing to identify themselves.

Lepp, who's appeared in several issues of High Times magazine and other publications dedicated to growing marijuana, has been charged three other times with marijuana-related crimes in Lake County, Russell said.

He was acquitted of a 1997 charge and never charged after being arrested in 2002.

Until Wednesday morning, Lepp was free on $200,000 bail following his August arrest, also by federal agents.

Not only did he break the law again, Lepp violated a condition of his bail by growing marijuana, said Richard Meyer, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

He said federal prosecutors plan to seek a no-bail hold on Lepp this time.

The 2004 charges against Lepp carry a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life, Meyer said.

Meyer said Wednesday he doesn't yet know how Lepp will be charged following his latest arrest, and what the potential prison sentence will be.

Lepp is scheduled to be arraigned today in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Note: Charles 'Eddy' Lepp arrested for 4th time, with 6,000 plants seized fourth time Wednesday.

Source: Press Democrat, The (CA)
Author: Glenda Anderson, The Press Democrat
Published: Thursday, February 17, 2005
Copyright: 2005 The Press Democrat
Contact: letters@pressdemo.com
Website: http://www.pressdemo.com/
Link to Article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20255.shtml