Obama Pot Justice? Not!
Guest blog by journalist Paul Boerger
Candidate and President Barak Obama promised a more reasoned drug policy, but Dr. Mollie Fry and her husband attorney Dale Schafer are now serving five years in federal prison for conspiracy to cultivate and distribute marijuana. With just over 100 plants collected from their California property by El Dorado County Sheriff’s Deputies, in cooperation with federal drug enforcement, in small amounts over a three year period, the pair qualified for a mandatory minimum five year sentence.
Dr. Fry is a general practitioner and vocal advocate for medical marijuana. She began writing marijuana recommendations after her doctor suggested she try it in conjunction with breast cancer treatments. Operating within the California’s Proposition 215, that legalized medical marijuana, Dr. Fry says she has written over 10,000 recommendations.
The case has dragged on for nearly ten years, with Dr. Fry’s first contact with law enforcement on the case going back to the Bush administration. After entrapment by the Sheriff’s Department and the confiscation of 34 plants in September of 2001, and an additional 66 plants in two additional confiscations over the next two years, the pair were indicted in 2005. Convicted in 2007, largely on the testimony of two informers who were themselves facing drug charges, they were sentenced to five years in prison in 2008. The pair refused a plea bargain on principle, Schafer having to spend a year in prison and the condition that Fry would have to surrender her license to practice medicine. In addition, Dr. Fry refused to allow her husband to go to prison while she remained free. An appeal was denied in November of 2010 and they began serving five year prison sentences on May 2, 2011. Presidential clemency is their last resort.
Certainly, the expectation would be that the Bush administration would relentlessly pursue medical marijuana, but Barack Obama promised a different approach. Senate candidate Obama said, “"I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws." As President, Obama initially directed the Justice Department not raid to medical marijuana dispensaries that are compliance with state law.
And Dr. Mollie Fry is serving five years in federal prison.
The Obama Justice Department has consistently turned a blind eye to far more egregious offenses than marijuana. The complicity of Wall Street financiers in the world economic collapse has been largely ignored or mitigated without criminal charges. Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and Anthony Mozilo of Countrywide Financial committed financial fraud on a heretofore unheard of scale and were allowed to pay fines instead of facing criminal prosecution and prison sentences. Numerous others, such as Joseph Cassano of AIG and hedge fund manager John Paulson, have gone completely free of any consequences whatsoever.
And Dr. Mollie Fry is serving five years in federal prison.
Obama has also allowed past offenses by the Bush administration to go unpunished. John Yoo, now a legal professor at Berkeley University in California, and Jay Bybee, now a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, wrote the legal justifications for torture under Bush. The Obama Justice Department declined to prosecute. Torture is a crime under US and international law, and the Geneva Convention. Both German and Japanese officers were executed after WWII for authorizing torture of prisoners.
And Dr. Mollie Fry is serving five years in federal prison.
The inconsistencies in the Obama administration’s application of marijuana laws is startling. The case of California medical marijuana dispensary operator James Stacy provides a stark contrast to Fry’s case. Stacy was arrested in 2009 by federal authorities and charged with enough marijuana offenses to net him life in prison. A plea bargain ultimately resulted in three years probation.
And Dr. Mollie Fry is serving five years in federal prison.
Despite Obama’s pronouncements, the jails and prisons overflow with marijuana prisoners and in most states the use of medical marijuana is still illegal. The world economy has been brought down by fraud with no consequences to those who perpetrated it, advocates of torture go free and those convicted of far more serious marijuana offenses get probation.
And Dr. Mollie Fry and her husband Dale Schafer, leaving behind five children and two grandchildren, are serving five years in federal prison.
Dr. Mollie Fry and Dale Schafer turned themselves in to begin serving five year prison sentences on May 2, 2011. Presidential clemency is their last resort. Take action on urging clemency by visiting this site, or for more information on the case, visit this site.
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