Maker of Cannabis Candies in Oakland sentenced by Feds
Saturday, September 6th, 2008Michael Martin, who joined the medical marijuana movement after seeing his father die painfully of prostate cancer in 2002 after a 10-year battle, was sentenced yesterday to a year in a halfway house and a year of home detention for conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana.
Martin’s attorneys wrote that their client had been manufacturing candy as a medicinal cannabis product. They argued that their client, “was not motivated by profit” and that he now has “a negative net worth of $147,000.”
Martin owned a factory in Oakland that made cannabis candies under the name Tainted, Inc., which was later changed to Compassion Medicinal Edibles. Tainted produced several different brands of candies, such as Buddafinga, Mr. Greenbud, and Stoners, along with other medicinal cannabis edibles including: cookies, ice cream, peanut butter, granola bars and barbecue sauce. Although we fell the sentence is totally uncalled, thankfully Mr. Martin will not go to prison.
In federal marijuana cases, defense attorneys are barred from telling jurors that companies supply medical cannabis products through licensed dispensaries to qualified patients. Proposition 215, the initiative approved in 1996 by state voters, legalized growing and using marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor’s recommendation. Under federal law, marijuana used for any purpose is illegal.
The investigation bore similarities to DEA raids in Oakland in 2006 in which five people connected with a company called Beyond Bomb were convicted of making marijuana-laced treats with such names as Munchy Way, Rasta Reece’s and Puff-a-Mint Pattie.
