Photo of Edwin Rubis (The Weldon Project)
By Victoria Valenzuela / Original to ScheerPost
While cannabis has grown into a $33.6 billion business, with cannabis restaurants, lounges and dispensaries sprouting up around the country and cannabis legalized in 24 states for recreational use and 39 states for medical use, Edwin Rubis, 56, a father of three sons, is serving his 27th year of a 40-year sentence for a nonviolent charge of conspiracy to distribute cannabis. His release date is 2031.
Rubis was 29 when he was arrested by agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in 1998, after having transported cannabis for drug dealers in order to pay off his debt to them for his addiction. Since then, he has helped parent his three sons from behind bars, earned three college degrees including his master’s degree, began pursuing a PhD in religious studies, became a devout Christian, and mentored others who are incarcerated with him.
Advocates who have worked with Rubis say he is a reformed man, and they are calling for President Biden to grant him clemency before leaving office. They say that he should not be held so long in prison for a nonviolent cannabis crime.
“It frustrates me the way marijuana is being treated by society, and I’m still sitting here behind prison walls when a lot of people are profiting from the same product that I received 40 years for,” Rubis said in a phone interview.
When Rubis was arrested, he was living with his wife, three months pregnant, and their three-year-old son. He had another son from a previous marriage. He recalls working jobs here and there to support his family, but he was struggling with drug addiction. He became indebted to dealers, so he started working for them to pay off the debt.
While authorities tried to get Rubis to give up names of others under arrest, he feared repercussions his family might face and stayed quiet. He ended up going to trial, where other people involved in the crime pled guilty in plea deals and testified against him. They were given shorter sentences and have been released.
“They all received sentences, and they have all been released, and I’m the only person in the case that is still in prison,” Rubis said in an interview.
Erik Luna, Rubis’ lawyer, said in an interview that Rubis’ case is among the most troubling cases of those convicted for cannabis. Luna said Rubis “at a very young age, was arrested in a marijuana trafficking scheme … [The DEA] didn’t find any drugs or guns or money on him. It was all nonviolent. It was all marijuana related, no cartel connections, no gang connections.” He said that Rubis’ conviction was rooted in the remnants of the tough-on-crime era.
“[Rubis] got trapped in the very end of probably the worst time period for marijuana prohibition, and he’s paying the price for policy decisions that were, to my mind, poor and misguided when they were enacted, but they surely are unjust today,” Luna said.
People convicted of drug offenses make up the largest number of those in federal prison, and out of that, there are approximately 3,000 people serving time for a cannabis related offense. Luna said that these individuals are continuing to pay the price for an incredibly poor policy decision made more than a century ago.
Weldon Angelos, founder of Project Mission Green, a cannabis clemency organization, said in an interview Rubis is one of the most compelling cases for clemency currently before the president and that several members of Congress support Rubis’ clemency. “He’s not somebody that went to prison and got worse. He went to prison and took advantage of programming opportunities to better himself and prepare for reentry and back into civil society.”
Angelos said the average sentence today for those convicted for cannabis offenses carry a three-year sentence and that under state law, Rubis would have been out of prison years ago. He said it is “inherently unjust” that Rubis is serving a draconian 40-year sentence.
Since his conviction, Rubis has filed several appeals, all unsuccessful. Clemency from a president is the only remaining avenue for his relief. He filed clemency petitions to the Bush administration and the Obama administration, but those were also denied, and the Trump administration never addressed the petition. Now, he is waiting to see if the Biden administration will address the petition. Trump will be inaugurated on Jan. 20.
“He has done everything that you would expect of someone in order to redeem themselves, in order to earn mercy from the president, in order to earn clemency in this process, and yet he still remains in prison,” Luna said. “Now it’s just up to the President to do the right thing.”
As a senator, Biden supported tough on crime measures including tougher penalties for cannabis. Biden can grant clemency to those who were impacted by these penalties on a federal level. While he has said that no one should be in prison for cannabis, Biden has yet to release anybody from prison. He granted pardons, but only to those who were already released from prison, expunging their records.
Rubis said that he hopes to return home and reunite with his sons and aging parents. In a video attached to a petition, Rubis’ mother called on Biden to grant him clemency, saying her son deserves to be released: My son is not a terrorist, rapist, or gang member, he has mentored prisoners and helped them overcome destructive behaviors, drug and drink additions. We miss him too much, I ask [Biden] to grant him a second chance at life.”
“Up to this juncture,” Rubis said, “I think I have done everything that the system has asked me to do, and when it comes to rehabilitation, and when it comes to being a model prisoner, when it comes to mentoring others with the things that I’ve learned through my college education. I know I can be a contributing member of society.”
Victoria Valenzuela is a criminal justice reporter based in California. She is currently assistant publisher at ScheerPost. In the past, she has been published in The Guardian, BuzzFeed News, Bolts, Waging Nonviolence and more. In the past, Valenzuela has also worked with The Marshall Project and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a master’s degree in specialized journalism with a focus on social justice and investigations.
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Edwin Rubis, serving a 40-year sentence for nonviolent cannabis trafficking, has spent 27 years in prison. Advocates urge President Biden to grant him clemency, highlighting his transformation and … Read More
