Cannabis Club Figure Gets 6 Years

Despite impassioned pleas for leniency from advocates of medicinal marijuana use, a judge on Friday sentenced the founder of an Orange County cannabis club to six years in prison for selling and transporting the drug.

The stiff sentence caps a closely watched case that focused attention on the issue of who is entitled to legal protection under Proposition 215, the state’s medicinal marijuana initiative passed two years ago.

Marvin Chavez Sr., who was convicted last November of selling marijuana to undercover officers and mailing the drug to a cancer patient, was immediately taken into custody after the judge made his decision.

The 45-year-old Garden Grove man, who said he takes marijuana to ease the pain of severe spinal arthritis, grimaced as he raised his arms to be shackled by deputy marshals.

“Hang in there, Marvin!” one supporter cried out.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Borris cited a Probation Department report that found Chavez was not a good candidate for probation because of past brushes with the law.

Chavez was twice convicted of carrying a loaded firearm in 1976, according to the report, and was convicted in 1990 of cocaine trafficking.

Chavez and his supporters argued that he had paid his debt to society for those crimes, and that it was unfair to penalize him again.

“I’ve made mistakes in my life, and I paid for them,” an emotional Chavez told Borris, his trembling arm held by his attorney James Silva. “I am here to obey the law as a citizen. I don’t endorse illegal activities or drug abuse.”

Chavez said he was acting in the spirit of Proposition 215 when he distributed the drug to those he believed had serious medical conditions.

“Marvin Chavez felt that he was operating under the law,” said his lead attorney, J. David Nick. For political reasons, he added, “the powers that be were convinced that he was not.”

Prosecutor Carl Armbrust, however, called Chavez a “sophisticated drug dealer” operating under the guise of the law.

“Marijuana is still an illicit drug in the United States,” Armbrust said. “And California is still part of the United States.”

Under Proposition 215, “it is legal to grow and possess [for medicinal purposes], but the law does not imply you can sell marijuana,” he said.

Medicinal marijuana advocates called the sentencing a major setback for their efforts in Southern California.

“People in Orange County have no clearer idea of the law,” said Steve McWilliams, a proponent from San Diego.

McWilliams and others pointed out that since Proposition 215 passed, different jurisdictions have been selective in the way they enforce the law. Prosecutors in Alameda County and San Francisco, for example, have publicly stated they will not pursue such cases.

“In Orange County, the message sent out today is ‘hide,’ ” said attorney Silva.

Chavez founded the cannabis club in 1996. A member of the group was arrested in late 1997 on suspicion of possessing marijuana, and Chavez was charged as a co-conspirator. Chavez was freed on his own recognizance on condition that he stop distributing the drug. But undercover investigators posing as seriously ill patients later bought marijuana from Chavez, and he was arrested.

A jury convicted Chavez on two felony counts of selling marijuana and one count of transporting it by mail. But it acquitted him on two other charges and downgraded five felonies to misdemeanors.

On Thursday, Borris suspended the sentences on the lesser charges, but handed down a total of six years on the other counts.

Chavez’s supporters, numbering about 20 in the small courtroom, deplored the tactics of the district attorney’s office.

“With serious crimes rampant, the narcotic officers found it necessary to set up a sting, entrapment,” said Julie O’Donovan Ireland of Laguna Beach.

Ireland, whose husband and son have terminal cancer and lost six family members to the disease, said “cannabis is a blessing in alleviating the devastating effects of treatment. It is people like Marvin Chavez who are there for us.”

Chavez’s case illustrates the ambiguities of Proposition 215, which allows doctors to prescribe marijuana, and for patients and their “primary caregivers” to possess the drug legally. Borris ruled Chavez could not use Proposition 215 as a defense in the trial because he did not meet the criteria of “primary caregiver.”