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‘Kettle Falls 5’ case tests marijuana laws
State-licensed defendants face harsh federal charges
Washington state’s permissive marijuana laws have been on a collision course with the federal government’s total ban for years.
That collision could occur this summer in a Spokane courtroom as the federal government seeks convictions and stiff mandatory prison terms against the members of an Eastern Washington medical marijuana cooperative being called the Kettle Falls 5.
Marijuana advocates familiar with the case say a conviction would have serious implications statewide, not just for medical users but for the new recreational marijuana industry being licensed by the state to grow, process and sell the drug all over Washington.
The five defendants won’t be allowed to argue they were obeying state laws on medical marijuana, or even mention it to the jury, U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle ruled last week, citing several precedents. That raises the prospect that if federal drug officials decide to arrest recreational marijuana growers, they also won’t be able to claim they were following state laws as a defense.
And federal officials won’t need aerial searches, like the one that turned up the Kettle Falls 5 garden, to find recreational marijuana grows. The locations will be listed on public documents filed with the state Liquor Control Board.
Top Justice Department officials have said the federal government will refrain from prosecutions in states that have legalized some form of marijuana, providing those operations are not involved in any of eight key activities such as selling to minors, using a state-sanctioned marijuana operation as a cover for other illegal activity, funneling money to organized crime or moving drugs across state lines. They also want to keep violence and guns out of marijuana operations and keep them off federal lands.
The Kettle Falls 5 defendants say they weren’t involved in any of the eight activities federal officials have flagged. Yet they are charged with multiple drug felonies, including two that carry mandatory sentences totaling 10 years.
Officials from the U.S. attorney’s office in Spokane and the Justice Department declined to comment because the case is ongoing and the jury trial was to start Monday until a last-minute continuance on Friday moved the trial to July 28. Current and former prosecutors say the silence puts them at a disadvantage because information could come out in trial that casts the case in a different light.
Pot meets kettle
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