I decided to put this here instead of under WA cannabis news.
Larry Harvey poses for a photo outside the federal courthouse in Spokane, Wash., on Feb. 12, 2015. Harvey, 71, was among a group of defendants known as the "Kettle Falls Five" in a federal case involving medical marijuana growers in rural Washington state. (Dan Pelle, The Spokesman-Review via AP)
Washington man at center of high-profile federal medical pot case dies
Larry Harvey, who had pancreatic cancer, and four others faced federal charges after they were caught growing medical marijuana on their rural property near Kettle Falls
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Larry Harvey, seated, and the rest of the “Kettle Falls Five,” from left, Rhonda Lee Firestack-Harvey, Jason Zucker, Rolland Gregg and Michelle Gregg. Dan Pelle/The
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By The Associated Press
COLVILLE, Wash. — A northeastern Washington man at the center of a nationally watched medical marijuana case has died of pancreatic cancer, six months after the federal government dropped charges against him.
Larry Harvey was 71. He died Thursday in a hospital in Colville, Washington.
Harvey and four others — including his wife, two relatives and a friend — faced charges after they were caught about three years ago growing about 70 pot plants on their rural property near Kettle Falls. They were known as the “Kettle Falls Five.”
Harvey said he used the drug to ease pain from gout, but the government argued that the operation did not comply with the state’s medical marijuana law.
Washington medical marijuana
The Kettle Falls case: Get caught up on the federal prosecution of medical marijuana growers in rural Washington state
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The case outraged medical marijuana advocates because Harvey faced at least 10 years in prison. Also, while marijuana use remains illegal under federal law, its recreational and medical use is legal in Washington.
I wonder how the stress that this elderly gentleman had to go through attributed to a quicker death. The family should be able to sue the Federal Government.
CK