Chris Bartkowicz Sentenced To 5 Years In Prison

A Denver-area marijuana grower who was controversially arrested last February was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison on Friday.

Chris Bartkowicz of Highlands Ranch, Colorado was arrested at his home in February, 2010 after DEA agents saw a segment about his medical-marijuana grow operation on local news.

"Whether it's a small grow or a big grow, I don't think the average person realizes how close to their front door it is," Bartkowicz told KUSA in Denver during a segment on Colorado's burgeoning medical marijuana industry.

Days later, DEA agents arrived at Bartkowicz's house, confiscated the marijuana plants he had been growing in his basement, and charged him with felony Marijuana Possession with Intent to Sell, a crime punishable by up to 40 years in prison.

The arrest send shockwaves through the medical marijuana community, as Bartkowicz was a licensed medical marijuana caregiver in Colorado.

Marijuana-rights activists pointed to a guidance the Obama administration issued shortly after taking office that directed law federal enforcement officials "not to focus federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws."

The DEA says that it had reasonable evidence that Bartkowicz was not in "clear and unambiguous" compliance with Colorado law, as the number of plants he was growing exceeded the amount he was allowed under state law.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Bartkowicz could not use state law as a defense.

In October, Bartkowicz pleaded guilty in exchange for a sentence of 60 months on prison. District Court Judge Philip Brimmer accepted the deal on Friday saying that he "miserably failed" to abide by state marijuana law.

Comments

[jsknow]

06:03 PM on 02/01/2011

When was the last time you heard of the cops being called to break up a fight at a marijuana party? NEVER! When was the last time you heard about a marijuana consumer beating his wife? NEVER! The cops and the politicians know marijuana is no threat to society but they keep screaming their fear mongering marijuana lies at every opportunity. Did you ever wonder why?

THE LAWS PROHIBITING MARIJUANA ARE NOT A RESULT OF ANY HARM FROM MARIJUANA. THEY ARE THE RESULT OF LIES, GREED and racism. Read the well documented proof of that and a lot more marijuana TRUTH in these two articles: “MARIJUANA AND HEMP THE UNTOLD STORY, Thomas J. Bouril” and “WHY IS MARIJUANA ILLEGAL, Pete Guither”, click the links to those articles on this webpage:
Internet Explorer web browser: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home
All Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html

No matter which side of this issue you’re on PLEASE read the two articles linked above. It’s almost certain you’ll learn things about marijuana and marijuana prohibition that you never knew before.

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA AND REGULATE IT LIKE POTATOES, CORN OR ANY OTHER SAFE NATURAL PLANT/CROP! NO NEW TAXES!

Legalize marijuana and stop funding criminals, gangsters, illegal aliens and terrorists with hundreds of Billions in tax free $ every year. “When you fund something you get more of it” (Ron Paul). Does anyone really think we need more criminals, gangsters, illegal aliens and terrorists?

[bigdaddyvike]

04:10 PM on 01/31/2011

I feel bad for him, but going on TV was THE stupidest thing do do. He threw it in their face, and they reacted as what they saw as accordingly. What an unjust thing, though. Five years?

[runfastandwin]

02:17 PM on 01/31/2011

It's time to eliminate the DEA, they are nothing but a bunch of worthless suckers on the teat of the taxpayers.

[i the ys]

01:33 PM on 01/31/2011

Let's outlaw spinich or tumbleweed or tomatoes. WTF ? Sounds somewhat like the forbidden fruit thingy. Do not eat from the forbidden tree Adam. Didn't work right out of the gate did it?

[Todays Illusion]

02:27 AM on 01/31/2011

Come on tea bags Scream to make government smaller. 
 
Shut down the DEA.

[Todays Illusion]

02:26 AM on 01/31/2011

America today.
Destroy the entire economy of the U.S.A.
You get a tax cut and get richer.
 
Grow a little marijuana. . . . ..
We, not the fools who made these crapo laws get to pay about $3000 per year to keep him in jail.
 
 

[Patrick McGuire]

11:45 PM on 01/30/2011

this is a joke. drunk drivers deserve 5 years. not people who grow pot.

[fumes]

04:42 AM on 01/31/2011

between the police around here at huffpo..

and the police out there chasing non-threatening pot people..

i'm starting to walk and talk like an egyptian!

i'm really disappointed in my lovely new president where pot is concerned.

i campaigned and voted for him and (almost) want my time and vote back..

(except for the fact that the alternatives would have been far worse).

[Patrick McGuire]

09:50 AM on 01/31/2011

i agree that pot needs to be more of a national issue. it is a massive waste of time/$/resources to turn people who use pot into criminals. it doesn't make any sense.

[fumes]

07:34 PM on 01/30/2011

a buzz a day..

keeps the doctor away!

[Aitch5]

07:28 PM on 01/30/2011

A real good use of tax dollars.

[i the ys]

01:20 PM on 01/31/2011

I hope that's sarcasm.

[Aitch5]

04:55 PM on 01/31/2011

It is.

[fumes]

07:19 PM on 01/30/2011

pot's good medicine..

"Many highly accomplished individuals past and present have chosen homeopathy as their therapy of choice, including several U.S. Presidents. Many of America's literary greats advocated for and often wrote about homeopathy, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mark Twain - as did European greats such as Goethe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Alfred Tennyson, and George Bernard Shaw.

At the turn of the 20th century, the AMA came right out and admitted that competition was destroying physicians' incomes. Thanks to funding from John D. Rockefeller and the Carnegie Foundation, the AMA was able to repress and ultimately eliminate homeopathy and other natural and alternative competition. The 22 homeopathic medical schools that flourished in 1900 dwindled to just 2 in 1923. By 1950 all schools teaching homeopathy were closed.

Ironically, John D. Rockefeller believed strongly in homeopathy. He referred to it as "a progressive and aggressive step in medicine." Rockefeller lived to the ripe old age of 99 using only homeopathy in the latter part of his life."

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/029940_homeopathy_scientist.html#ixzz1CXrycpWQ

[jukesgrrl]

05:17 PM on 01/30/2011

The DEA and the Justice Department are still filled with Bush appointees who are operating under Republican marching orders. I fault Attorney General Holder for not getting them to change that mindset.

[Tewhiti]

11:26 PM on 01/31/2011

I fault Obama for nominating Bush's appointee, Michele Leonhart, as his new administrator for the DEA. This was after thousands of comments and major drug policy reform groups in opposition.

Obama could have easily chosen a non-Bush appointee, someone who was not nearly as zealous a drug warrior, with very little to no cost to his political capital, but he refused to do so.

[surlyatbest]

02:44 PM on 01/30/2011

What Dope.
A Big Mouthed Dope.

[tweeksmom]

08:05 PM on 01/30/2011

Yup. Folks like him are going to ruin it for everybody!

[KirkPowers]

12:25 PM on 01/30/2011

Yeah.. All men are crated and judged equally.. yeah right.. this man is singled out and has to be mead and example of by sending him to prison
You would think that it a "FREE" country people could do as they please to get medical help , relief from pain or anxieties in sickness.
Not so .. the Medical. pharmaceutical industry can not patent the pot so they refuse to let the lobbyist Not influence the laws.
They need to legalize this plant.. totally ridiculous..

[firewmn]

11:16 AM on 01/30/2011

Missoula jury pool creates uproar across nation after marijuana 'mutiny'

"http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_c7b4045b-5aad-513d-b8f4-ab5186d39008.html"


Fred Van Valkenburg in 2007- Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg, who had presented the proposal for the amendments to the county commissioners, said the separation of misdemeanor and felony charges would give direction to county officials as to what a lowest law enforcement priority means. Van Valkenburg also emphasized that the initiative is merely a recommendation for the county law enforcement, not a law.

The tone of the hearing shifted when Van Valkenburg said that he had proposed the amendments because of a “gut feeling” that Missoula voters were not “detail-oriented” enough to understand the complete scope of the initiative.

Van Valkenburg said, “People who deal with big quantities of marijuana are significantly different then people who deal with smaller possessions of marijuana” and that “people [Missoula County voters] did not understand the impact the initiative would have on large quantities of marijuana in our community.”

FREDDIE- NOW- in 2011- http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_9a0dd80a-2c3a-11e0-9188-001cc4c002e0.html

As to why Van Valkenburg would pick an eastern Montana lawmaker to sponsor a bill directly affecting Missoula County, that's easy,said county attorney.

"There are 68 Republicans in the House," Van Valkenburg said. Save for Champ Edmunds in House District 100, Missoula's House delegation is all-Democratic. "It's got a better chance of passage with a Republican sponsor."

[firewmn]

11:16 AM on 01/30/2011

continued-
Fred's first request -
http://missoulian.com/special-section/news/medical_cannabis/article_4a730082-2847-11e0-8f9c-001cc4c002e0.html

Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg has asked a Roundup lawmaker to introduce a bill that would override Missoula County's 2006 initiative making marijuana the lowest priority of law enforcement.

Missoula County Initiative 2 is "just bad policy," Van Valkenburg said Monday. "Why should a local electorate essentially be able to override the state Legislature?"

Republican Rep. Tom Berry said he's requested that a bill be drafted "to treat all state laws equally and basically to circumvent the law they passed in Missoula."

***************************

SO I ask- HOW can ordinary people - FIGHT the TAKE OVER of a people's inititive. Fred found a way to cirrumvent the people of Missoula - they pay his wage- I vote they TAKE his 30 years of GOVT pension away from the severe alcoholic calling the pot shots!!!

[fumes]

04:58 AM on 01/31/2011

i agree with you firewmn..

and apparently so do those jury mutineers.

gotta love them!

[steven bates]

10:23 AM on 01/30/2011

Hard to understand how a person can go to jail for growing a sunstance that is sold through a legal store front and taxed by the government. If this were illegal why isn't everyone in the chain from the grower through the retailer to the consumer? He must have kept books, as any business does. Why are the retailers fine? Do the feds not know what they sell?

[Allwx]

11:29 AM on 01/30/2011

It isn't so hard to understand. Under the state law a grower is limited as to the number of plants he can grow at one time. This gentleman had well over 200 plants growing in his house, according to a local report at the time of the arrest. He was far in excess of the allowable limit in CO. My wife grows her own weed because she has terminal cancer. A single plant carefully and lovingly grown can produce between one and two ounces of flowers, sometimes more. Here in NM we are limited to 4 flowering plants at a time. Under this limit a person can easily produce up to a half-pound of flowers every three months, out of four plants. That is a lot of weed for one person to consume in three months. In CO a grower can grow for several patients, and so he can have a plant limit based on number of patients he grows for. But 200+ plants is way in excess of this man's production needs. The law enforcement people must have assumed, I think correctly, that he was growing for people other than legal patients.

[LegalizeFreedom]

02:00 PM on 01/30/2011

None of the things you are saying about CO law are true.

Bartkowicz was a caregiver. At the time of his arrest, there was no limit on the number of patients that he could care for. He could have potentially had enough patients to legally(under state law) grow 6,000 plants. Not only that, but the CO constitution allows patients who require more medicine(think cancer, fibromyalgia, MS) to grow as many plants as they need, with no specified limit.

The reason Bartkowicz was busted is because he went on the news and said he made 400k a year... technically any marijuana possession/use/growing is illegal and prosecutable under federal law.