John Seidenberg was originally arrested on state charges for cultivating two gardens for the Hortipharm collective, each garden having over 100 marijuana plants.  The arrest followed a raid in December of 2007 in Lompoc and a second raid in February of 2008 in Santa Ynez by the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department.  A Santa Barbara Sheriff's Deputy turned Seidenberg over to federal prosecutors, who was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury on August 26, 2008.  Seidenberg says that he and Hortipharm had taken pains to operate within the law, and that he was well within the Attorney General's guidelines for collective gardens, which allow 6 plants per patient, since he was growing for some 2,000 Hortipharm members.

Seidenberg took a plea deal that could result in a sentence ranging from time served to 3-5 years in federal prison, of which he'd have to actually serve 85%.  In July 2010, Seidenberg was sentenced to 4 years of probation plus 18 months of GPS monitoring by Judge Dean Pregers in the U.S. District Court at 312 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA. His co-defendants all got probation in state cases.

Last updated January 31, 2013 by Lex Libreman for WEED WARS: United States v. Marijuana.  Information provided by www.canorml.org and www.medicalmarijuanaofamerica.com (now defunct).