Medical pot grower sentenced for selling in Fla.

A federal judge in Medford sentenced Donald James Galvan, 48, of Central Point to 37 months in prison on one count of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana.

The case illustrates how even registered medical marijuana growers who follow state guidelines of six plants per patient can produce amounts far in excess of the 1.5 pounds that a patient is entitled to for a year, and how legal and illegal marijuana are intertwined.

According to court records, Galvan's arrest stemmed from an April 2011 traffic stop in Texas that turned up 43 pounds of marijuana.

The driver, identified in court documents as H.J., told them he was taking it to Florida to sell, and about half if it came from Galvan in Oregon. Galvan had supplied him three previous times, for a total of 72 pounds of marijuana. The driver agreed to contact Galvan again, and made a deal for another 55 pounds of marijuana for. H.J. was to pay him $125,000, which would cover the previous shipment and a down payment on the next one.

Agents kept watch on Galvan's home, and stopped Galvan and his daughter driving out in a truck loaded with 65 pounds of marijuana. Galvan told authorities he was delivering it for sale to H.J, and it represented a portion of his 2010 crop, which produced 200 pounds of buds from 96 plants, the full complement for 16 patents under the state medical marijuana law. This haul, which included 38 pounds from co-defendant Richard Eugene Caruso, would bring $126,000.