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Maryland Judge Bans Any Talk of Legalization in Pot Trafficking Trial |

California’s cannabis trafficking case against Maryland highlights the hypocrisy of the Justice System when it comes cannabis-related charges.

The prosecution claims that Jonathan Wall, 27, now 27 years old, transported nearly 1,000 kg of marijuana from California to Maryland in two years. Given those amounts, Maryland law defines him as a “drug kingpin.”

He was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2019. He was indicted by a federal grand jury. United States v. Wall, if convicted of “conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana,” Wall faces a sentence of up to 10 years to life in federal prison, with a mandatory 10-year sentence hovering over his head. 

Today marks Wall’s first appearance in court, as he is confined to a federal supermax prison. However, the elephant in the room is the fact cannabis is legal in many states, including several jurisdictions. It is also legal in many other places for medical purposes.

According to prosecutors, Stephanie Gallagher (U.S. District Judge) approved on April 26 a motion asking for the court’s prohibition of any discussion about the current cannabis legalization movement in the United States. Outlaw Report

The defense team will not point out the hypocritical nature of non-violent cannabis cases in 2022 given the new law changes.

Prosecutors from the Justice Department filed the motion weeks ago requesting that the U.S. District Court of Maryland preclude Wall’s defense team “from asking questions, presenting evidence, or making arguments regarding the way the law in other jurisdictions treats marijuana.”

“Marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance and under federal law, it is [a] crime to conspire with others to distribute or possess with the intent to distribute marijuana,” prosecutors wrote in the motion. “The fact that other jurisdictions have legalized marijuana, decriminalized marijuana, are considering decriminalization of certain quantities of marijuana, or have declined to prosecute individuals for crimes involving marijuana, is not relevant to the issues at this trial.”

According to the judge, legalization does not matter in the case. The motion added that “evidence and argument of this sort is not relevant and should be excluded from this trial.” 

Jonathan Wall, who are you?

Andrew Ward interviewed Wall Chronic NewsThe most affected last year. “Everybody knows it’s federally illegal, but certainly not to that extent until they find themselves affected first-hand,” he stated. Wall was kept at Baltimore’s Chesapeake Detention Facility. This facility is well-known for having a high degree of violence. It seems unfair that one individual must endure extreme prison conditions in order to get something legal. 

Wall’s lawyer, Jason Flores-Williams, a noted activist, agreed that the War on Drugs is a dead idea, and people are still paying the consequences because of it. The question is, is it fair that Wall and others are among the last?

“There are so many people who dedicated and essentially donated their life to getting this plant to where it is today, on the verge of legalization,” Wall told InsiderInside jail “Do I have to be the last person who is prosecuted for a product that’s making billions of dollars around the world?”

Federal authorities allege that Wall served as the “architect” of the program, when he was just a 20-year-old in Humboldt County. If Wall simply had a license to transport that amount, he wouldn’ve simply been a “distributor” in the world of legal cannabis. This is the difference between trafficking or not.

Read Wall’s own account of the alleged crimes. Wall describes how rape can lead to a shorter sentence than those charged with drug offenses.

Wall sought to make the court dismiss the case on both geographic procedural and equal protection grounds. The reason for this was because of the arbitrarily applied federal cannabis ban.

Wall’s trial begins Monday morning in the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. At the time of writing his petition had not been received. Change.orgOver 16,000 signatures.

Go to FreeJonathanWall.comTo learn more, visit his case.

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