The former owner of a downtown Bangor head shop and smoking lounge for medical marijuana users was sentenced Tuesday to 20 months in federal prison for illegally growing and selling marijuana and trying to hide the proceeds.
Christopher Ruhlin, 49, of Holden pleaded guilty last year to a drug conspiracy charge in connection with an indoor growing operation in Frankfort. Ruhlin, formerly the owner of Herbal Tea & Tobacco and the now closed 13 Owl’s Club, also pleaded guilty to one count of structuring, or trying to hide cash deposits from bank regulators.
Before being sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bangor, he forfeited $115,000 that he earned illegally.
“I failed, your honor, in a spectacular and disappointing fashion,” Ruhlin said at his sentencing, where he apologized to the community, prosecutors, the court, and his friends and family.
“I let them down more than anything else,” he said. “They expected me to follow the rules and I didn’t. Part of what happened was I was so completely immersed in this culture that everything I gravitated to was helping other people get marijuana. I deeply regret this not because I’ll go to prison but because of the people I hurt.”
More than a dozen people attended the sentencing in support of Ruhlin. Several of them told the judge that Ruhlin helped them in times of personal and financial need. Ruhlin wept as they spoke.
Ruhlin’s wife and current owner of the Bangor head shop business, Michelle Ruhlin, described her husband as “thoughtful, loving and kind.”
“All I know is that he’s worthy of receiving the compassion he expressed even at his own peril,” she said in a letter read by her husband’s attorney, Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor.
Ruhlin admitted to conspiring with Terrence Sawtelle to illegally sell marijuana to people from a dispensary that was not licensed by the state. Sawtelle rented space from Ruhlin and operated 13 Owl’s Club as a hookah lounge for about two years beginning in 2014, according to court documents.
Herbal Tea & Tobacco still operates at 44 Main St. and on Hogan Road in Bangor. The smoking lounge is closed but at one point had 1,000 members, the judge said Tuesday.
Sawtelle, 49, of Dexter and formerly of Bangor was sentenced earlier on Tuesday to a year and a day in prison on a conspiracy charge.
[Bangor head shop owner pleads guilty to pot-growing scheme]
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey, who prosecuted the case, said that Ruhlin applied for a dispensary license but the state denied it. He also said that Ruhlin made thousands of dollars selling marijuana, noting that the U.S. attorney’s office does not prosecute medical marijuana caregivers or dispensers who operate within state law.
Silverstein said that Ruhlin jumped the gun in growing and dispensing marijuana.
“He thought he could fill a need for qualified people,” the attorney said. “The smoking lounge was not open to everyone. People had to be qualified card holders.”
U.S. District Judge Jon Levy said at both men’s sentencings that the pair not only broke federal law but also did not abide by Maine’s medical marijuana statutes. The rules allow medical marijuana caregivers to grow pot for five people who have the proper paperwork.
Ruhlin and Sawtelle had four patients on the books but used the fifth position as a “floater,” court documents said. The fifth person came to the lounge, immediately became a patient, but once the person left, he or she was no longer considered a patient, and another customer would become the fifth patient.
[Feds charge owner of Bangor head shop with growing, selling pot]
Sawtelle’s attorney, Charles Hodsdon of Bangor, described his client as a “true believer in the medicinal value of marijuana.” He said that Sawtelle and Ruhlin were lifelong friends when the two decided to open the smoking lounge.
Sawtelle purchased marijuana from Ruhlin and other illegal suppliers. Levy said that an average of a quarter pound of pot per day was sold from the smoking lounge. When the 13 Owl’s Club was raided in August 2016, three pounds of processed marijuana was seized, the judge said Tuesday.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Ruhlin faced between 57 and 71 months in federal prison, and Sawtelle faced between 18 and 24 months. The prosecutor recommended Ruhlin be sentenced to 30 months in prison and Sawtelle be sentenced to 18 months in prison. Defense attorneys urged the judge to impose sentences of probation or short prison sentences.
In addition to prison time, Levy sentenced both men to three years of supervised release. By sentencing Sawtelle to a year and a day, he will be able to earn time off his sentence for good behavior. The judge ordered Ruhlin to report to prison March 27 and Sawtelle to report to prison March 14.
Three other men who grew marijuana for Ruhlin in Frankfort were sentenced in the case last year after pleading guilty to drug conspiracy charges.