February 17th, 2005: Eddy Lepp and Daniel Barnes were in Federal District Court in San Francisco today. They were arrested at Lepp's home in Lake County on February 16. Mary Otte, an assistant to Jack Herer, and documentary filmmaker Jason Dunlap were also arrested during the early morning raid on Lepp's house. Dunlap and Otte were later released, but the DEA seized all of the footage for Dunlap's planned documentary on Lepp. Lepp and Barnes were charged with distribution of marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and maintaining a premise for the purpose of cultivating marijuana. According to the criminal complaint, an undercover DEA Task Force Officer met with Lepp on January 19, 2005 and negotiated the purchase of one pound of dried and processed marijuana. The undercover officer was wearing a concealed transmitting device which was monitored and recorded by other DEA agents who observed the meeting.

The DEA alleges that Lepp told the undercover officer that he "possessed a strain of cannabis that would make White Widow pale in comparison." The criminal complaint states that Lepp agreed to sell "the one pound of high THC marijuana" for $2,500. Barnes, allegedly acted as a go-between delivering the one pound of marijuana to the undercover officer and taking receipt of the $2,500. "At no point during the negotiations was the subject of 'medical' marijuana raised by either party," the DEA says. Read more

February 16th, 2005: Dale Gieringer of CA NORML reported today that Eddy Lepp and one or two other people were arrested this morning at Eddy's home in Lake County. Federal Drug Enforcement Agency officers allegedly detained Eddy because marijuana clones were found growing on the property. Eddy, who was recently on a 3-week hunger strike in protest against the charges against him from his arrest last summer arrest last summer, has likely been transported to the Federal Building in San Francisco, and it is expected that he will be arraigned in Federal Court.

Eddy is a medical marijuana farmer, minister, and caregiver through his organization Eddy's Medicinal Gardens. A reading of California's Compassionate Use Act of 1996 says, "(California Health & Safety Code) Section 11357, relating to the possession of marijuana, and Section 11358, relating to the cultivation of marijuana, shall not apply to a patient, or to a patient's primary caregiver, who possesses or cultivates marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician." SB 420 says, "A person with an identification card or a primary caregiver with an identification card shall not be subject to arrest for possessing eight ounces or less of dried marijuana per person with an identification card, and maintaining six or fewer mature or 12 or fewer immature marijuana plants per person with an identification card."