Robert “Duke” Schmidt, who ran the Genesis 1:29 medical marijuana dispensary from his home in Petaluma, was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison on 7 July 2005.[1] United States District Judge Charles Breyer imposed the sentence in his San Francisco courtroom; Schmidt, who had already served seven months, was to report to a minimum-security prison on 1 September.[1][2]

Schmidt had founded the non-profit dispensary in 1999, supplying members from his home grow and other sites while seeking federal approval for cannabis research, including telling state officials in advance what he would plant.[1] DEA agents raided his house in the early hours of 12 September 2002 and seized 2,600 plants from a garden he leased in Sebastopol; Schmidt was arrested and charged with assaulting an officer.[1][3]

His case had been paused pending the Supreme Court’s ruling in Gonzales v. Raich, which held that state-legal patients and caregivers could still be prosecuted under federal law.[2] At sentencing the judge applied the Booker decision to depart below the guidelines, cutting the term by ten months partly because Schmidt was ineligible for a prison drug-treatment program.[2] Schmidt had pleaded guilty to charges of cultivation and possession of 265 kilograms of marijuana more than two years earlier.[2]