In the face of public pressure, the Department of Justice will allow
Jerry Duval, a seriously ill medical marijuana patient, to serve his
10-year sentence for marijuana-related offenses in a federal facility
capable of meeting his medical needs, Duval told HuffPost Monday. The
DOJ originally sentenced Duval to standard federal prison despite a judge’s recommendation that
his medical condition be taken into account. Duval had been barred from
presenting his medical condition, or any discussion of state law,
during his trial, according to court documents.
Duval, whose juvenile diabetes led to both a kidney and a pancreas
transplant, also lives with glaucoma and neuropathy. He has a strict
medical regime, which prior to his arrest had included medical
marijuana. That regime will now be the responsibility of taxpayers and
the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Mass., where Duval may stay in a
cell similar to the one currently occupied by Boston bombing suspect
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: a 10-by-10 foot steel room. The DOJ confirmed its
decision to move Duval to the federal medical facility rather than
standard federal prison, and Duval has been "ordered to surrender" and report to the facility by June 11.
"I’ve never even been out east," Duval told HuffPost.
Despite his conviction for marijuana distribution, court documents
indicate that Duval, 53, has followed medical marijuana laws in his home
state of Michigan that have been in place since 2008.
The threat to Duval’s health is real. In August, Richard Flor, a
seriously ill 68-year-old Montana man, died in federal custody while
serving a five-year sentence. The DOJ did not heed his attorney’s
health-related warnings. "It is anticipated he will not long survive
general population incarceration," his attorney had said.
Flor was swept up in a series of federal raids just as the Montana
legislature was debating reforms to the medical marijuana law. The raids
tilted the politics of the debate in the DOJ’s favor as it lobbied to roll back the law.
A HuffPost/YouGov poll
conducted in December found that 58 percent of Americans think the
federal government should exempt from federal drug law enforcement any
adults following state laws in the states that have legalized medical
marijuana. Only 23 percent said the federal government should enforce
its drug laws in those states the same way it does in any other state.
The cases against Duval and Flor are part of a broader use of power by the DOJ.
Under Attorney General Eric Holder, the department has managed a string
of victories against the elderly, sick and infirm, though it has been
less successful prosecuting Wall Street executives. Beyond Flor and
Duval, an 82-year-old nun
protesting nuclear power and a young Internet activist accused of
attempting to share academic journal articles are among the targets
Holder’s DOJ has pursued with vigor. The department has also targeted a
Fox News journalist for acts of reporting, issued a sweeping secret
subpoena for a large swath of Associated Press phone records and
prompted young men with radical inclinations to confess to undercover FBI agents that they would be willing to participate in a terrorist plot.
In the case of Duval, Michigan law allows a medical marijuana
caregiver to grow up to 72 plants for five registered patients. Duval
had two greenhouses on his property, where exactly 174 plants were
seized, according to federal court filings. Those greenhouses were run
not by Duval, but by his children, Jeremy and Ashley Duval, who were
registered as caregivers and served five patients each. Their father was
one patient.
Jeremy has been prosecuted and is currently serving a five-year
sentence in a federal prison in Morgantown, W.Va. He was offered a
reduced sentence if he would testify against his father, Duval said, but
Jeremy declined. Ashley was not charged, despite openly admitting to
her involvement. Meanwhile, the DOJ is attempting to seize the Duval family farm.
"Prosecutorial discretion was used" in not charging his daughter,
said Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office that
handled the case. She said she could not comment on whether a reduced
sentence was offered to Jeremy, Duval’s son, in exchange for testimony.
"The US Supreme Court ruled that state laws are not relevant to
federal narcotics laws," Balaya said in an emailed statement to The
Huffington Post. "Ignoring this rule and the law, Gerald Duval
