Remember The Kettle Falls 5?

he Harvey Family, also known this year as
“The Kettle Falls 5” – a family of medical users in Washington State now facing
decade long sentencing mandates for home grow and use— may get an extra present
from Cannabis Santa this Christmas.

Not only is it likely that DEA funding
critical for prosecutors to pursue the case may not survive this year’s budget
ax in Congress, but the family has a new trial date (February 2015) and a new
judge to go with that.  In what has been
seen as a new and growing trend all over the country, new judges—whether new to
the bench or to a case— are also being called into high profile cases like the
Harvey’s.

The Harvey case has become a national
rallying cry for the many serious problems facing medical cannabis patients all
over the country; even in Washington State where recreational use as well as home
grows for medicinal purposes are legal. 
Furthermore, prosecution of the case, which has cost federal taxpayers
over $3 million to date, is increasingly an embarrassment in an environment
where the “crimes” committed by the Harveys are increasingly becoming nullified
by changing national laws.

The patients’ rights advocacy community, in
particular, is ecstatic with the recent developments both on Capitol Hill and
for the family.  If the case is in fact thrown
out after this year’s omnibus budget package becomes law, the Harveys and many
other people in the same situation across the country, face a new year where
the “crimes” they are being accused of have no budget to be prosecuted. With
this in mind, hopefully tax dollars can continue to flourish in more useful ways.