Free Matt Davies Website Launched

Imprisoned Medical Marijuana Provider Seeking Clemency

(Sacramento, CA, January 25, 2015) A website aimed at telling the story of Stockton businessman Matt Davies’ ordeal as a California medical marijuana provider that was prosecuted under federal drug laws forbidding the sale and cultivation of marijuana and imprisoned in the Taft Correctional Institution has been newly released and can be found at www.FreeMattDavies.com.

In 2009, Matt Davies established his first of several medical marijuana dispensaries. Although called “dispensaries,” these facilities were in many ways more like patient clinics, where patients suffering from pain could obtain medical marijuana per California law. Davies, an experienced businessman with an MBA, ran the dispensaries adhering to normal accepted business practices, which included strict accounting procedures, transparent bookkeeping and payment of all local, state and federal taxes.

“Matt Davies was scrupulously following California law,” said Rex Halverson, Davies’ attorney who has filed the Petition for Commutation of Sentence with the U.S. Attorney General’s Pardon Attorney. This commutation can only be granted by President Obama.

When voters in California passed the medical marijuana initiative, by and large no one believed that the federal government would zealously enforce its conflicting laws prohibiting the sale, possession and cultivation of marijuana in California.  But that is exactly what the U.S. Attorney’s Office did while elected officials professed that the federal government would not.

What is particularly troubling in this case is that the Justice Department released the Cole Memo in August 2013, updating guidance to federal prosecutors in states that have enacted medical marijuana laws. This memo largely reiterated the public positions of both President Obama and his then Attorney General Eric Holder.  That is, federal prosecutors must now focus on two important questions before exercising their prosecutorial discretion over marijuana-related enterprises: (1) whether the operation is in compliance with state and local laws; and, (2) whether the conduct at issue implicates one or more of the Department’s core enforcement priorities, e.g.,

selling marijuana to minors, providing revenue to drug cartels, use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana, growing or use of marijuana on federal lands, etc.

Matt Davies violated none of the eight listed enforcement priorities in the Cole Memo and detrimentally relied on the federal positions made public in both the Ogden Memo and the Cole Memo that were repeated in public announcements by the President and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Notwithstanding, Matt Davies finds himself incarcerated in federal prison. After being threatened by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with a sentence of 15 years, Matt Davies took a plea deal in exchange for a lesser 5 years’ sentence.

“I thought Matt’s prosecution and imprisonment in 2014 for the sale of medical marijuana would be the final such case in California when I first met Matt; but, sadly that has not proven to be the case,” said Halverson. “Federal prosecutors continue to arrest, prosecute and imprison medical marijuana dispensary owners and farmers that grow marijuana every day in many of the 23 states and District of Columbia that have legalized medical marijuana.  That is simply wrong. Our federal government needs to remedy this injustice immediately!  Prosecuting, imprisoning and separating loved ones from their families while costing taxpayers millions of dollars to prosecute and another $35,000 to $40,000 per prisoner per year to incarcerate simply makes no sense. Times have changed and the vast majority of our society today favors legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana.  It should no longer be a Schedule I or even a Schedule II drug. Marijuana is more similar to alcohol than the Schedule I drugs which include heroin, meth and cocaine,” he adds.

Matt Davies does not belong in prison. Mr. Halverson, as well as Matt’s friends and family, are actively seeking the President’s review of Matt’s Petition for Commutation of Sentence. In an effort to accelerate the process, a White House Petition has been created at www.whitehouse.gov.  If this petition garners 100,000 signatures within a 30-day timeframe, the matter described in the Petition will be brought to the attention of President Obama for his review. This White House Petition will go live on March 1, 2015. Please consider adding your signature to the Petition once it goes live.

To view a short video detailing The Matt Davies Story, or to learn more about the problems created when federal and state marijuana laws do not conform, please visit www.FreeMattDavies.com.

Contact Rex Halverson at: 916-444-0015 or [email protected].