More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition for a Texas teen who faces between five years to life in prison for allegedly making and selling marijuana brownies, demanding that his charges be reduced.
Jacob Lavoro, 19, was arrested in April after police found 1.5 pounds of brownies in his Round Rock, Texas home, along with marijuana and hash oil. Lavoro now faces a first-degree felony charge that could potentially lead to life in prison.
Authorities say Lavoro’s punishment is severe because of the hash oil used in the brownie recipe. They say hash oil has harsher penalties than marijuana because of the higher concentration of THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana.
Under Texas law, hash oil is in the same penalty group as amphetamines and ecstasy.
Round Rock resident Robert Butler, who started the petition for Lavoro, said the “sentencing rules are being abused and stretched to increase a punishment that does not fit the allegations.”
“The police apparently included the full weight of the brownies: flour, sugar, water, etc. and the plastic containers that held them to determine the weight of the illegal hash oil used to bake the brownies,” Butler wrote on change.org.
Butler is petitioning Jana Duty, Williamson County District Attorney, to reduce Lavoro’s charge to misdemeanor possession.
With files from The Associated Press
