LOS ANGELES -- The former manager of a West Hollywood medical marijuana dispensary that sold millions of dollars worth of the drug and related products was sentenced Wednesday to five years probation.

James John Carberry, 56, could have been sentenced to as much as 20 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Manuel Real, who ordered him to perform 1,500 hours of community service.

"This has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to endure," an emotional Carberry told the judge.

Defense attorney Philip Deitch asked Real to allow his client to use marijuana to combat glaucoma. Carberry is allergic to traditional medication, and marijuana seems "to lower the pressure in his eyes," Deitch said.

Real denied the request, demanding a doctor's report to prove Deitch's contention.

Carberry pleaded guilty in February to maintaining drug-related premises.

In his plea agreement, Carberry admitted managing the "Yellow House" in a bungalow located on North La Brea Avenue. Prosecutors said the Yellow House sold more than $1.7 million in marijuana and THC products in March 2005 alone.

Some of those products included "Kief Kat" candy bars, "Toke" sodas and "Trippy" peanut butter, prosecutors said. Marijuana and marijuana plants also were sold to minors at the store, according to prosecutors.

Carberry was a business associate of Larry Roger Kristich, who owned the Yellow House and six other medical marijuana dispensaries in California.

Kristich's Compassionate Caregivers chain also had branches in San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, San Leandro, Bakersfield and Ukiah from 2002 to 2005.

Kristich pleaded guilty in January to money laundering charges and faces up to 40 years in federal prison at his sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for October.

On Monday, Real sentenced another Kristich associate, James Lawrence Ealy, to five years probation and ordered him to perform 1,000 hours of community service for possession of marijuana.

Prosecutors had asked for one year of probation, but Real decided otherwise.