Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder said the federal government would stop prosecuting medical marijuana distributors who comply with state law. Drug policy reformers immediately wondered how the change would affect Charlie Lynch, who last year was convicted of five felonies for helping California patients alleviate their suffering with marijuana. Evidently the judge charged with sentencing Lynch is wondering the same thing.

On Monday, when Lynch was scheduled to be sentenced, U.S. District Judge George Wu said he needed more time to consider the meaning of the Justice Department's new policy. Now that the Obama administration has promised to respect state medical marijuana laws and leave people like Lynch alone, the injustice of sending him to prison is even more glaring.

Since mid-2006, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has raided at least 80 medical marijuana dispensaries in California. During his campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly said he would end the raids, and last week, his attorney general gave the clearest sign yet that the president intends to keep that promise. "The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law," Holder said.

Lynch, who is now scheduled to be sentenced on April 30, does not seem to be one of those people. He openly ran a medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay for a year, with the sanction of state law and the support of local officials, before the DEA closed it down. Last August he was convicted of five distribution and conspiracy charges that carry combined penalties of five to 85 years in prison.

After the verdict, the jury forewoman said, "we all felt Mr. Lynch intended well," but "under the parameters we were given for the federal law, we didn't have a choice." In letters to Judge Wu, two other jurors have described the case as a miscarriage of justice, saying they felt constrained to convict Lynch because they were told state law was irrelevant. Continued...