MATTHEW S.

PAPPAS
A T T O R N E Y
22762 ASPAN ST, #202-107

LAKE FOREST, CA 92630

OFFICE@MATTPAPPASLAW.COM

(949) 382-1485 FACSIMILE: (949) 242-2605

July 23, 2013 VIA U.S. MAIL Mr. Andr Birotte, Jr. United States Attorney U.S. Courthouse, 14th Floor 312 N. Spring Street Los Angeles, CA 90012 Re: Medical Marijuana Forfeiture Cases Dear Mr. Birotte: I saw your interview about human trafficking on Good Day L.A. Hopefully, your comments will bring attention to this important issue. The things you said to look for as possible signs of human trafficking are likely things most people do not know and that will help more citizens spot and report this terrible crime. One of the properties the government is seeking to forfeit in the medical marijuana cases has a space in it that Dr. Mark Burcaw, the buildings owner, has, for several years, donated to a group that works to help bring attention to and assist the victims of human trafficking. Mark has, on many occasions, advocated on behalf of that group. As you know, I met with Mr. Welk last Thursday. At the end of the conversation, Mr. Welk told me that I could write to you if I did not believe the discussion with him was effective. The discussion was not effective and it is clear Mr. Welk is out to close all medical cannabis patient groups in Southern California whether or not those patient groups are in compliance with state law. In his words, there are no patient groups in compliance with state law in the entire district. Not only did he mischaracterize state law, he was insistent the Department of Justice guidance in the area of state medical marijuana matters refers and applies only to individual patients. I referred him to a press conference by Mr. Holder in New Mexico, an appearance by Mr. Holder before a Congressional committee last year where he is answering questions asked by a Congressman from Colorado, and a 60-Minutes interview with Deputy Attorney General Cole from late-2012. The policy

Mr. Andr Birotte, Jr. July 24, 2013 Page Two

does not solely apply to patients it applies to patients, patient groups, caregivers, cultivators, and dispensaries properly operating under state law that are not large-scale commercial drug traffickers (Mr. Holder referred to drug traffickers as being what we commonly expect that to mean people with guns living the luxury lifestyle the drugcartel folks not people providing for patients). Congress announced that the purpose of the 1971 Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act was to combat recreational drug abuse and addiction. The Supreme Court made clear that was indeed the purpose of the Act in its 2006 Gonzales v. Oregon decision. The federal government holds a patent on at least one (1) strain of marijuana citing the use element required for that patent as the drugs benefits for patients suffering from AIDS dementia. In January and then again in March of this year, the National Cancer Institute which is a component of the federal National Institutes of Health released an approximately 25-page report showing cannabis is effective in reducing the size of tumors in various forms of cancer. That report also noted that cannabis has antiemetic as well as eating disorder medical benefits. A 2010 letter from Dr. Robert Petzel, M.D., the then Undersecretary of Health for the Veterans Administration, changed a long-standing policy of that federal agency and reflects that medical issues are what is important when evaluating the use of cannabis in conjunction with other ameliorative drugs prescribed to veterans. Whether from the National Cancer Institute website, the online stored copy of Dr. Petzels letter, or from the PDF of the governments cannabis patent, you can quickly go to the website of the Office of National Drug Control Policy to then be told that medical marijuana is a myth. Deputy Attorney General Coles June 29, 2011 memorandum was preceded by the passage of Oakland Municipal Code Chapter 5.81. In late-2010 and early-2011, there were several warehouses in Oakland that had been slated for gigantic marijuana factories. Permits were being issued by that city to allow the growth of tens of thousands of marijuana plants in these gigantic warehouses that approached a million square feet of space. In Long Beach, that City had similarly approved as part of its ill-fated Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 5.87, a huge marijuana factory. A video made by the proprietors of that factory showed thousands of plants, giant factory equipment, and boasted massive production of marijuana. Both Oakland and Long Beach were looking at the money. The huge permit lottery application fees in Long Beach amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars for marijuana sellers that, through schemes designed to thwart certain limiting provisions of that citys law, intended to operate multiple facilities.

Mr. Andr Birotte, Jr. July 24, 2013 Page Three

In February, 2011, Melinda Haag wrote a letter to the City Attorney of Oakland warning him that the planned massive cultivation facilities would not be acceptable to the federal sovereign. Prior to her letter, I filed an action against the City of Long Beach averring that LBMC Chapter 5.87 conflicted with federal law. The plaintiffs in that case were patients who were members of patient collectives that operated for the benefit of patients and who could either not afford the $14,742.00 minimum amount demanded by Long Beach or if they could afford that amount would put their respective patient groups in jeopardy. After Ms. Haag sent her letter, the two (2) U.S. Attorneys in Washington state sent a similar letter to then-Governor Christine Gregiore. In various jurisdictions around the country, other U.S. Attorneys made clear their large-scale drug trafficking concerns. It is clear from the chronology leading up to Mr. Coles June, 2011 memorandum that the illegal drug trafficking and thousands of marijuana plants he was referring to were included in his memorandum to address the issues raised by Ms. Haag. He was not referring to patients operating as groups who truly operate for patients. He wasnt referring to people who are driving used cars with more than a hundred thousand miles on them and who rent apartments with the compensation they receive. Ive seen managing patients evicted from their personal apartments because they lack sufficient income and who have struggled and struggled. Those people are not doing what they do to be drug traffickers they are doing what they do to participate in the patient cooperative process because they care about patients. Just like people who work for other non-profit organizations are compensated, the patients who work within the collective process can certainly be reasonably compensated that doesnt make them drug traffickers as Mr. Welk presumes. When Mr. Welk tells me there are no collectives that operate in compliance with state law, it makes clear he either does not know the states law and 2008 Attorney General guidelines or he is being less than forthcoming about his true intentions. The latter seems to be the case because after reviewing nearly 1,500 pages of discovery material turned over by the City of Anaheim including emails between people in your office, the D.E.A., and city personnel, there is never a mention of any review of whether the various Anaheim collectives (which is all of them) operate in compliance with state law. Rather, the email threads often included the same general theme repeated by Mr. Welk during my meeting with him he is going to close every single patient group in the Central District. His answer and the answer given by those Assistant U.S. Attorneys who work in his division to the query, where will patients go to get medication when all the collectives are closed? is likewise telling; If he intended to follow the guidance provided by the Department of Justice, that answer would be that the patients can go to those patient collectives in full-compliance with state law. Knowing he intends to close all groups

Mr. Andr Birotte, Jr. July 24, 2013 Page Four

regardless of whether they operate properly under state law, he and his underlings answer, they can go back to the streets and get marijuana from the street drug dealers like they did before the states medical marijuana laws were enacted. Indeed, that answer thwarts the intent of Congress to combat recreational drug abuse and addiction because it lines the pockets of those street drug dealers peddling much more dangerous drugs than marijuana. Unlike some jurisdictions, California law does not allow patient groups to operate for profit. Managing patients, workers, and cultivating patients can be compensated, but the business form a collective may organize under must be not-for-profit. There are, of course, people who do not follow the law. Just yesterday, your office reported on its website the substantial sentence imposed on John Walker by Judge Selna. The fact is, Mr. Walker was not only liable under federal law, he could have been charged under California law because the states medical marijuana decriminalization provisions do not operate as defense for non-compliant individuals or patient groups. Ive also read statements youve made on your website and the letter you sent responding to Jeff Dunn and others at Best, Best, and Kreiger who wrote to you in May, 2011 on behalf of the City of Lake Forest. You say that California law does not allow storefront dispensaries. That is as incorrect now as it was in 2011. While storefront dispensaries can only be the groups of patients defined in then-when he wrote it Attorney General Browns 2008 Guidelines for the Safety and Non-Diversion of Marijuana Grown for Medical Use, state law indeed provides for those entities. That was made clear in People v. Hochanadel (2010) and People v. Jovan Jackson (2013). Under state law, patients can exchange money to cover the costs of medication including the costs of operating the collective and the costs of the cultivating patients. Yes, money is exchanged and people make a living. When those patients are doing that only for the benefit of other patients, it is not an activity Congress intended its 1971 law to combat. I filed Pack v. City of Long Beach because I believed the approval by cities of huge marijuana operations operations that very likely were what Mr. Cole referred to as drug trafficking were a threat to patients and their access to medication. Before the Pack case was ever on anyones radar as a pending appellate case, Ms. Haag wrote her letter to Oakland. It should be clear that Im advocating for the patients and not for the millionsquare-foot marijuana factories envisioned by Oakland and Long Beach. But Mr. Welk doesnt care about the patients. Operating lockstep and without thought for the citizens he works for and who pay him, Mr. Welk combats patients prescribed medical marijuana by licensed state doctors rather than the recreational drug addiction and abuse Congress intended for its law. If the federal sovereign focused on those people operating outside the

Mr. Andr Birotte, Jr. July 24, 2013 Page Five boundaries of state law if cities focused on those people if government targeted the problem Congress was trying to address when it enacted the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, those people operating outside of the states medical marijuana laws would be significantly reduced or entirely eliminated. The late-night jokes and tales spun by officials seeking T.V. airtime do not account for the thousands and thousands of seriously ill and disabled patients prescribed marijuana and who daily fight battles associated with their respective conditions. Many of those people are terminal. Ive met and I know many of them. I also know people who, instead of using much more dangerous drugs like Ambien and Lunesta, have been prescribed medical cannabis for insomnia. Insomnia is a major problem for people. It is a health condition that significantly limits a major life activity sleep. While Lunesta is a benzodiazepine that is addictive and the evidence showing Ambien has led to serious injury and death is voluminous, the National Cancer Institute that part of the federal government I mentioned earlier has reported the benefits cannabis provides in helping cancer patients suffering from insomnia. It no doubt helps those suffering from insomnia who do not have cancer without leading to the deaths caused by Ambien or the addiction caused by Lunesta. Im just one person one citizen who because of a situation involving a person I love and care about has worked to advocate for her and other patients. Im getting tired. These are people. Cannabis is the most effective medication for my daughter. I know it is the most effective medication for my assistants husband Kevin who served in the Army and suffers from PTSD. It is effective for Sonia Scott, Rae Hodaee, Brenden, Marla, Tony, Ryan, Marty far too many to name. They shouldnt have to go to street drug dealers as Mr. Welk and Mr. Parham have told them to do. And while I like Mr. Parham, Mr. Welk is mean-spirited. Despite my frustration with this issue faced daily by the patients, I know that President Obama is not that he is not mean-spirited. Im tired of getting to the day I must pay rent and not having enough money. Im tired of having people bash me and mischaracterize my efforts. And Im tired of having to realize I live in a country where people really do not care where the Congress is so unproductive and its members so worried about re-election, theyre afraid to do what is right and stop the attacks on patients that have gone on for years now. No wonder their approval rating is the lowest in history. Mr. Welk told me he intentionally did not send warning letters to the Jalalis, Dr. Burcaw, Mr. Wu, the Botschs ahead of filing forfeiture actions against their properties. Just days after receiving the lis pendens and notice of the federal lawsuit to take her property, Morgan Jalali went to the hospital for cardiac issues because of the stress. Her husband, Tony, told me multiple times he wasnt breaking any laws when I first met him.

Mr. Andr Birotte, Jr. July 24, 2013 Page Six After the forfeiture action was filed against his property, Tom Wu was almost inconsolable. After a couple of months and the immense stress, Tom Wu looks like hes aged twenty years. Penny Botsch cried the first hour during my first meeting with her and her husband Walter. Like Tony Jalali, the Botschs and Tom Wu are not lawyers they all insisted they were not breaking any laws by leasing to the collectives other than city ordinances being challenged in numerous cases before state courts. Those city laws remain at issue despite the very narrow ruling of the California Supreme Court in May. Walter and Penny Botsch are near or over seventy (70) years of age. Walter has terminal cancer and is now in the hospital. Yet Mr. Welk wanted the shock value of filing against them without any prior warning notice by the federal government. What a guy. Outraged at how he had been compared to the governments of Iran and Syria, Mr. Welk explained that he and others in your office have families and are just doing their jobs. Maybe they can tell that to Penny and Walter Botsch. Perhaps they can explain why they did what they did to Tony and Morgan Jalali and to the Wu family. Maybe they can differentiate between what goes on in Syria and Iran from what theyve done here to Mark and Marty Burcaw and their family. Finally, maybe they can explain to Sonia Scott and Rae Hodaee and countless other seriously ill and disabled patients why they are taking away medication recommended by licensed doctors that is the most effective for those patients. Perhaps they can tell Kevin Butcher why, as a veteran, he should use prescription drugs that led to two (2) suicide attempts instead of medical cannabis that has been far more effective and that has utterly eliminated the suicide issues he had without it. My meeting with Mr. Welk was not effective. Knowing youve worked with him for several years and that you are likely his friend, I must say anyways that he is as much a bigot in respect to his discriminatory views about patients for whom medical cannabis is effective as a person who in the past discriminated against women because of gender or because of sexual preference. Luckily, I was not the only person present at the meeting who witnessed his mean-spirited persona. Mr. Welk doesnt attack in an effort to give meaning to Congresss intended purpose of combatting recreational drug abuse he attacks to show the power he has and to show he has the bigger proverbial stick. As I told Mr. Welk, the United States is the undisputed most powerful entity on the face of the planet. Im not that nor are the patients. But I am certain Mr. Cole did not intend that the federal government attack landlords who never had an inkling they were leasing to drug traffickers. Im certain he didnt intend a forfeiture action be filed against the Jalalis, the Wus, the Botsches, or even the Burcaws because they leased space to groups of medical cannabis patients and without any federal warning letter. While he did intend the federal sovereign go after large-scale commercial marijuana operations, those were not

Mr. Andr Birotte, Jr. July 24, 2013 Page Seven any of the patient collectives that leased from any of these landlords. And if there were groups operating outside the scope of state law, it is likely better unless the group was something akin to the massive trafficking operation conducted by John Walker that the state deal with the issue. As it is now, Mr. Welk has decided he has to win for him, this is about him being a cowboy in a shoot-out not about actually combating recreational drug abuse and addiction or caring about people many of whom are dying, disabled, or dealing daily with serious illness. Hell say what he must say hell harm who he must harm as long as he wins. And, no, Im not holding back here his behavior is atrocious. It threatens the President because it makes him look like the bad guy who said one thing but did another. But maybe thats what Mr. Welk wants. Yes, Im tired Mr. Birotte. It is very likely there are so many fewer people like me who try to stand-up for what is right to stop the beatings like the one given to Dorian Brooks to stop the attacks on patients that go unabated to stop the sheer corruption in cities that care more about money than they do their citizens. Meeting Mr. Welk just gave me another reason to stop what Im doing because there are simply too many people who care only about themselves, who are mean-spirited, and who do not give a damn about other people. Mr. Coles June 29, 2011 memo clearly responded to Ms. Haag and other U.S. Attorneys concerned with large-scale drug trafficking. Those are the groups that should be targeted not every single patient collective group in the Central District. Ive written this letter based on what Mr. Welk told me that if I was unsatisfied with my meeting with him, I could write to you and ask, as I had asked Greg several time before, to meet with you. If you wont meet with me, I hope youve at least read this letter I hope youve at least spent the few minutes it might take to read it and then to think about following what Mr. Cole, Mr. Holder, Mr. Ogden, and Mr. Obama have stated as the federal governments position in this area. Not every single medical marijuana patient collective in the Central District is a nuisance you cant just attribute the bad to the good to try to justify this outrageous action. People deserve better. They should have government that works not what is happening here. As always, I am, Very truly yours,

Matthew Pappas MSP:jm encl.