Clemency Sought for Medical Marijuana Patient, Cancer Survivor Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison
Obama gets failing grade from patient advocates who will protest his re-election kick-off in SF tomorrow
Sacramento, CA -- A clemency petition was filed this week in
the federal Eastern District Court of Sacramento and sent to
President Obama in an effort to avoid or shorten the imprisonment of
Dr. Mollie Fry, a physician, breast cancer survivor and medical
marijuana patient sentenced to 5 years along with her husband Dale
Schafer, also a patient and an attorney. Fry and Schafer were
arrested and convicted without a defense under President Bush, but
they appealed their sentence which was vigorously fought by the
Obama administration in the Ninth Circuit. Fry and Schafer's
sentences were upheld in November and in March they were ordered to
surrender to federal authorities on May 2nd.
"On behalf of Dr. Fry and her five children," read the clemency
petition filed by Fry's attorney Laurence Lichter. "I beseech you to
release Judge Damrell and others from participating in this tragic
result not by pardoning her behavior but by commuting her sentence
to one that does not involve the brutality of incarceration." The
government has already harshly punished Fry and Schafer by revoking
both their licenses to practice. "My parents don't deserve to go to
prison," said Heather Schafer, the couple's oldest daughter and a
mother herself. "It's incredible that President Obama would spend
precious taxpayer dollars to lock up patients despite their
compliance with state law."
Beginning Thursday, April 21st until their surrender on May
2nd, Dr. Mollie Fry and Dale Schafer will be available for
interviews and can be contacted at 530-333-1607.
Fry and Schafer, who live with their family in Cool, a small town in
El Dorado County, California, were raided by the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2001, despite approval from
local law enforcement to cultivate medical marijuana. Nothing
happened in the case until June 2005 when the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled in Gonzales v. Raich that federal marijuana laws could
be enforced even against qualified patients. Two weeks later, Fry
and Schafer were indicted charged with manufacturing and conspiracy
to manufacture and distribute marijuana. Both defendants were denied
a medical defense despite being legal patients in compliance with
state law and were convicted in 2007. In order to obtain the
mandatory minimum 5-year sentence, the government added up multiple
years of harvests to arrive at more than 100 plants.
Advocates are blaming the Obama administration for failing to
develop a federal policy that avoids costly prosecutions and harmful
sentences, which have continued unabated under his administration
despite a supposed change to the country's enforcement policy in
October 2009. On the campaign trail, Obama said he was "not going to
be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state
laws on this issue." However, as president, Obama has conducted more
than 100 aggressive SWAT-style raids in at least 5 states, resulting
in more than 30 new federal prosecutions. President Obama has also
continued to vigorously prosecute his predecessor's cases -- like
Fry and Schafer -- rather than remanding them to state court where
defendants have a chance to defend themselves.
Patient advocates are bringing their message of medical marijuana policy reform to President Obama's re-election kick-off campaign in California. President Obama will be in San Francisco over the next couple of days and advocates plan to stage a lively rally on Thursday at 8am outside of a breakfast fundraiser at the St. Regis Hotel (125 3rd Street). The rally coincides with the release of a report card decrying Obama's record on medical marijuana."Patients are sick and tired of being marginalized and suffering from both their medical condition and the full force of the federal government," said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access, the country's largest medical marijuana advocacy group and organizers of the protest. "It's time for medical marijuana to be properly integrated into the president's public health policy."
Further information:
Clemency petition:
http://AmericansForSafeAccess.org/downloads/Fry_Clemency_Petition.pdf
Background on Dr. Mollie Fry & Dale Schafer: http://AmericansForSafeAccess.org/downloads/Fry_Schafer_Background.pdf
