The High Times NorCal Cannabis Cup was held this past weekend at the Cow Palace just south of San Francisco. A great time was had by all once again as we all celebrated the marijuana freedom that is so prevalent in the Bay Area.
But one man who deserves to be celebrating that freedom is currently locked in a cage.
Eddy Lepp is serving his federal sentence for cultivating cannabis plants at his Eddy’s Medicinal Gardens in California. He was raided in 2004 when authorities seized about 25,000 plants at the garden that was easily visible from US Highway 20. High Times reported that it was the largest single medical crop seizure in the United States and Lepp claimed that the government actually undercounted his plants.
In 2009, a federal judge sentenced Lepp to serve the 10 year mandatory minimum sentence for cultivating over 1,000 cannabis plants. After serving some of his time at the federal prison in Lompoc, CA, Lepp had since been transferred to the federal prison in La Tuna, TX, and is now ironically housed at the federal prison camp in Florence, CO.
That’s right; Eddy Lepp is sitting in a cage in Colorado for growing the same volume of cannabis plants being legally grown for profit all throughout the state.
A friend of Lepp’s working with the NORML Women’s Alliance told me he’d be calling in from the prison at 4:20 pm on Sunday. We took the phone to my 420RADIO booth and we recorded the following interview with Eddy Lepp:
In the interview you’ll hear from Eddy Lepp when he expects to be released from prison (sooner than expected!), how he misses the great Jack Herer and regrets being unable to have shown his respects on his passing, and what it feels like to be in prison in Colorado with legalization happening all around him.
