The history of Tom Kikuchi's case goes back to July 2002, when he and Stephanie Landa were both arrested for their role in a medical marijuana grow operation in San Francisco. The pair maintains that they were given the blessing of the San Francisco Police Department, who later raided the operation and turned the case over to the U.S. Attorney for prosecution. This change of jurisdiction put the defendants in greater peril, since the federal government refuses to recognize state laws permitting medical marijuana. Stripped of their defense and facing a trial that could have resulted in life behind bars, Kikuchi and Landa eventually pled guilty to a single charge of maintaining a place for the manufacture of a controlled substance. Kikuchi went immediately into custody, and served out his 37-month sentence at a prison camp. But an incident in May 2007 landed him back behind bars, as prosecutors alleged he violated the terms of his supervised release due to his connection to a Los Angeles area grow house. Although the links between Kikuchi and the house were purely circumstantial, Judge William Alsup sentenced Kikuchi to the maximum sentence of two years in prison for violating his probation. He served this time in a federal institution in Arizona, then a series of halfway houses. Kikuchi was finally released from custody in June of 2009, at which time he was left to contend with state charges from the Los Angeles grow house bust.

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