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Doctor, wife sentenced to 5 years in prison in medical marijuana case
By Denny Walsh - dwalsh@sacbee.com
Last Updated 6:43 pm PDT Wednesday, March 19, 2008
A doctor and his wife from El Dorado County were both sentenced Wednesday in Sacramento federal court to five years in prison for conspiracy to grow marijuana and manufacturing it in a medicinal marijuana case.
U. S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. said federal law left him with no choice but to impose the mandatory minimum sentence in each case.
The statutory minimum applied because a jury in August found Dr. Marion "Mollie" Fry and attorney Dale Schafer guilty of conspiring to grow and distribute at least 100 pot plants at their offices in Cool and their home in Greenwood.
The couple went from personal marijuana use for medical conditions - radical surgery for breast cancer in Fry's case, severe back pain and a dangerous form of hemophilia in Schafer's case - to supplying the drug to people who came to them with various ailments.
Fry supplied the physician recommendation required under California law, and Schafer advised their clients on the law regarding medicinal use. Each recommendation advised the holder that the possession, use, or manufacture of marijuana under any conditions violates federal law.
They insist they didn't expect trouble from federal narcotics agents because they were not selling the drug, and what they were doing in growing and supplying it to patients was encouraged by El Dorado County narcotics officers.
Damrell told Fry and Schafer they are martyrs, but he questioned whether their cause merits such a sacrifice, especially since they have children at home and help care for a grandchild.
Were it left up to him, the judge said, the punishment would be less. "It is a sad day, a terrible day," he said.
Then, at the conclusion of a grueling, emotional four-hour hearing, the judge ordered that the couple will be allowed to remain free on $25,000 bail each pending the outcome of their appeals.
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