Juries Sympathetic To Prosecuted Pot-Shop Owners

If San Diego serves as an example, the Los Angeles District and City attorneys' crackdowns on medical marijuana dispensaries in recent weeks could all be for nothing: Juries in our neighbor to the south are two for two in acquitting pot-shop owners prosecuted for selling weed.

In both cities, it boils down to this: Law enforcement believes that selling pot over the counter is not allowed under the state's medical marijuana law, which provides for the collective cultivation and nonprofit distribution of pot to the seriously ill. In Southern California's pot shops the attorneys see a retail, for-profit environment never envisioned by voters who supported Prop. 215. But ...

... While the city and district attorneys involved might be technically righteous, juries in San Diego have been sympathetic toward suspects whom they believe were trying to follow the law.

On Thursday a jury acquitted Eugene Davidovich of drug-possession-and-sales charges, the second time in four months that pot-shop owners in S.D. have been let off the hook in court.

In stings similar to what has taken place recently in L.A., undercover investigators in San Diego bought pot from the operators and then used the purchases as evidence of drug possession and sales at the dispensaries.

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and county District Attorney Steve Cooley have maintained that dispensaries cannot operate as for-profit retails of pot.