Jason Andrews, the outspoken marijuana activist whose previous pot case led to a hung jury, is behind bars awaiting trial for a brand new marijuana caper.
As the Weekly previously reported, Orange County sheriff's detectives followed Andrews from a Lake Forest pot dispensary in Oct. 2010 and busted him with two 8-ounce sacks of marijuana, as well as $5,800 in cash. Prosecutors charged him with possession of marijuana with the intent to sell. Andrews refused to accept a plea agreement; his case went to trial. A lone juror refused to find him guilty, citing the fact that Andrews had a state-issued medical marijuana card allowing him to possess and cultivate the plant.
Andrews was awaiting a second trial on that case on May 1, when according to friends and family members, officers responded to a domestic disturbance at his house.
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At the residence, officers found evidence that Andrews was cultivating marijuana and charged him with pot cultivation and possession with the intent to sell. During the call, officers used a Taser on Andrews when he refused to comply with their orders; they also charged him with resisting arrest.
After the arrest, family members posted on Facebook that they had called police on Andrews three times because of his erratic behavior and unspecified threats. He is currently being held at the Orange County Jail's Intake and Release Center with a $25,0000 bail. Andrews has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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Email: ns****@oc******.com. Twitter: @NickSchou. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is Editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).