NEWS: Ex-San Diego medical marijuana seller sentenced

SAN DIEGO—The ex-manager of a medical marijuana dispensary in San Diego has been sentenced to six months in jail and fined $5,000 for drug crimes.

City News Service says Jovan Jackson was sentenced Wednesday on three felony counts of illegal possession and sale of marijuana. His attorney, Joe Elford, says he believes the judge made several errors and he will appeal.

The judge had ruled that Jackson couldn't use the state's medical marijuana law as defense.

Prosecutors argued that he exceeded the bounds of the law and sold the drug for profit.

Jackson, himself a medical user, was arrested after he sold pot to undercover police officers last year at the now-defunct Answerdam Alternative Care dispensary in Kearny Mesa.

Source: Mercury News

NEWS: Manager Who Sold Medical Marijuana To Undercover Officers To Be Sentenced

Mr. Jovan Jackson

SAN DIEGO -- Sentencing is scheduled Wednesday for the former manager of a now-defunct medical marijuana dispensary convicted of selling the drug for profit to undercover officers.

Jovan Jackson -- himself a medical marijuana patient -- was found guilty in September of three felony counts, including possession for sale of marijuana.

Jackson faces more than six years behind bars, but Deputy District Attorney Chris Lindberg said he wouldn't expect Jackson to do any time in prison.

A jury found that Jackson twice last year sold marijuana to undercover officers from Answerdam Alternative Care in Kearny Mesa.

Judge Howard Shore ruled before trial that Jackson could not use the state's medical marijuana law as a defense.

Lindberg said Jackson's actions exceeded the bounds of the medical marijuana law in opening up a retail medical marijuana store.

Defense attorney Lance Rogers is expected to bring a motion for a new trial before sentencing.
During trial, Lindberg said an undercover officer was able to get a medical marijuana card after complaining to a doctor about back pain.

The officer went to Answerdam on July 16, 2009, and bought 1/4-ounce of marijuana for $130, the prosecutor said.

Jackson, 32, appeared to be in charge of the business when the officer was there buying drugs, according to Lindberg.

He said officers seized drugs and other business records during a raid at the business, but Jackson was not there. According to some of the records seized, drug sales totaled $14,000 for the months of June and July 2009, Lindberg said.

Rogers said that part of the problem is the vagueness of the state law, which allows medical marijuana patients to grow the drug for medicinal purposes.

The California Attorney General's Office issued guidelines in 2008 on how medical marijuana could be grown and distributed, but those guidelines are intepreted differently in different counties, Rogers said.

Another problem is "cross-sworn officers" who are charged with enforcing both state and federal law, because all marijuana possession is illegal under federal law, he said.

Jackson was acquitted last year of similar charges stemming from a raid at the Kearny Mesa collective in which an undercover detective bought marijuana in the summer of 2008.

Source: 10News.com (CNN)