In just the latest and perhaps harshest example of the schizophrenic nature of California's medical marijuana industry, the owner of a trio of Inland Empire medical marijuana clubs has been sentenced to serve a decade in federal prison. As Dennis Romero of the Weekly's sister paper LA Weekly just reported, Aaron Sandusky, 42, of Rancho Cucamonga and president of G3 Holistics, Inc. was sentenced to a mandatory minimum of ten years behind bars with an additional five years of supervised probation for allegedly selling pot in violation of the federal ban on marijuana.
]
Specifically, according to a press release issued by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, Sandusky was convicted last year of conspiracy and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana, both counts involving more than 1000 plants. Prosecutors allege that Sandusky is nothing more than “an unrepentant manipulator who used the perceived ambiguity surrounding 'medical' marijuana to exploit a business opportunity for himself.”
Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is Editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).