Charles Lepp

Eddy Lepp

Reverend Charles (Eddy) Lepp (Born: May 14th, 1952, La Harpe, Illinois) is known as a farmer, cannabis enthusiast, and prisoner of war – in the war on drugs. On the morning of August 18, 2004, DEA agents raided Eddy’s Medicinal Gardens and Multi-Denominational Chapel of Cannabis and Rastafari in Upper Lake, Calif. They arrested Charles Eddy Lepp, who had been allowing patients to cultivate cannabis for medical purposes on his property; the 24,784 plants confiscated on his 20 acres were clearly visible from State Highway 20. In 1997, he was raided, arrested, charged and acquitted by local and state authorities for doing the same thing. But then the Feds stepped in: Lepp was suspiciously convicted of “conspiracy” federal drug felonies in 2007, and sentenced in 2009 to a 10-year mandatory-minimum prison bid.

Biography

Lepp was raised in Reno, Nev. and served in the U.S. Army’s military intelligence unit in Vietnam from 1969–1972, where he discovered cannabis. Lepp’s epiphany on the medical use of marijuana came in 1987, when his father used it to battle cancer, and then rose in prominence as a marijuana activist in the early 1990s. He and his late wife, Linda Senti, gathered signatures for California’s Proposition 215, and soon after its passage in 1996, Lepp formed the Lepp’s Medicinal Gardens that earned him his first arrest. During his time in prison, Senti passed away, and eight states, including California, legalized the adult use of cannabis. On Dec. 9, Lepp was released from prison into a halfway house in San Francisco, where he began the probationary portion of his sentence.

Articles and Interviews

• "Eddy Lepp, Pot POW, to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award" - High Times
• "California Authorities Seize 27,000 Pot Plants in 4-Day Raid" - High Times
• "Radical Rant: A Conversation with Pot POW Eddy Lepp" - High Times
• "Legendary Cannabis Activist Eddy Lepp Is FINALLY Free From Prison" - herb.co
• "Cannabis Crusader Sues Cops After Raid On Rastafarian Cannabis Farm" - herb.co
• "Pot POW Eddy Lepp Finally Enjoys Sweet Taste of Freedom" - marijuana.com
• "The ‘marijuana martyr’ and cannabis convict Eddy Lepp is now free from prison" - thecannabist.co
• "Remembering the Godfather of the Modern Hemp Legalization Movement, Jack Herer (1939-2010)" - cannabisnow.com
• "Freedom Leaf Interview: Eddy Lepp" - Freedom Leaf

References

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