Marijuana candy makers sentenced to federal prison

[renegades]

Marijuana candy makers sentenced to federal prison
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 03/03/2007 02:33:15 AM PST


The owner and several employees of a business that produced marijuana-laced foods and drinks for medical marijuana clubs were sentenced to federal prison terms Friday.
Senior U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen of Oakland sentenced business owner Kenneth Dean Affolter, 39, of Lafayette to five years and
10 months behind bars as well as a $250,000 fine.
Affolter first was indicted in March 2006 on charges of conspiracy and manufacturing and distributing marijuana after DEA agents raided his home and production facilities, seizing marijuana plants and products, more than $150,000 in cash and several firearms. A witness-tampering charge was added in June.
He pleaded guilty in September to conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana, admitting he had controlled and managed several marijuana-growing sites in Emeryville and Oakland where plants were grown and turned into edible products such as "Munchy Way" candy bars, designed to look like Mars Inc.'s Milky Way bars; "Pot Tarts," designed to look like Kellogg's Pop Tarts; and "Trippy" peanut butter, designed to look like Unilever's Skippy product.
The products were distributed to medical marijuana dispensaries across several Western states; patients say Affolter's "Beyond Bomb" line of products were appetizing ways of taking their medicine. Medical use of marijuana is legal under California law but remains banned by federal law.
Several of Affolter's employees were charged. Amy
Teresa Arata of Oakland and Jesse Monko of Walnut Creek each pleaded guilty to a felony conspiracy count, agreeing to serve
18-month prison terms.
Arata was sentenced Thursday and will start serving her sentence May 1; Monko was sentenced Friday and will start serving his sentence May 2.
Jaime Alvarez-Lopez, Elizabeth Ramirez, Teresa Rojas, Camilo Ruiz-Rodriguez, Barbara Alvarez, Nathan Woodard, Maria Alarcon-Romero and James White each pleaded guilty earlier to misdemeanor marijuana possession.
Ruiz-Rodriguez was sentenced in October to eight months in prison, while Alvarez-Lopez, Ramirez and Alvarez each was sentenced in January to one year in prison. Alarcon-Romero in February was placed on a year of pre-judgment probation, while Woodard was sentenced Friday to two months in prison and will start serving his sentence April 19. Rojas is scheduled to be sentenced Friday and White is scheduled to be sentenced March 23.
It was unclear late Friday to what charge Robert Blackwell has pleaded guilty; he's scheduled to be sentenced March 23.
Contact Josh Richman at jrichman@angnewspapers.com or (510) 208-6428.

****big deal, one can still find lollypops and munchies laced with pot in any dispensary. So what did the govt prove? These government officals charged them in federal court so the judge tells the opposing parties that medicinal marijuana is not recognized in federal court and can't be brought up. So these poor distributers get the federal sentencing laws applied to them without a defense. That is not justice, this is blind justice at work. Isn't there a meth problem that needs the police's attention then some business man making money on a new growing industry that is here to stay. There is no getting the genie back in the bottle on thie one. Marijuana will be decriminalized this year because of the prison overcrowding issue and because it detracts a lot of resources that can be used to fight meth enemy number 1 and crack heads. This is swims prediction. Swim thinks GW might sign it, he is a realist.