News Blunts for July 19

State precedent to be set in Anaheim Appeal Case

A three-year-long case against Anaheim by Qualified Patients Association could come to an end by Monday, setting a precedent by which judges may follow in future cases in the state.

Qualified Patients, an Anaheim-based medical marijuana dispensary sued the city in 2007, when the city was attempting to implement an ordinance banning all medical marijuana dispensaries.

After Qualified Patients filed its lawsuit, the city was granted a demur, terminating the lawsuit. Qualified Patients appealed the decision in the Court of Appeals in Santa Ana.

The case was argued in the Court of Appeals in September and a ruling would have come 90 days later, but the court required further time to look over the case. A ruling is expected by Monday, which will be 90 days after the continuance.

"If the appellate court strikes down the Anaheim ordinance it will create a whole new playing field. It will change the medical marijuana landscape," said Anthony Curiale, the lawyer representing Qualified Patients in Anaheim.

Should Anaheim prevail, Curiale believes it will void the state's compassionate use act, which was approved by voters in 1996 to de-criminalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"That essentially means cities regardless of what state law says, will be able to completely ban medical marijuana in their cities," he said.

State law permits the operation of medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives, which are required to follow a set of guidelines by the Attorney General's Office.

The use of medical marijuana is still prohibited under federal law, and some cities chose to side with the feds by banning dispensaries.

The outcome of the case could determine if the state's law could pre-empt all cities' bans on medical marijuana dispensaries, said Moses Johnson, Anaheim city attorney.

"It could be far reaching, but we're not going to know until we see it. It's a very complicated issue," Johnson said. The Court of Appeal had it for a long time and everybody's just anxiously awaiting for a ruling."

Several members shared their personal stories and expressed their concerns over the possibly of their clubs being shut down.

Complete Upland Story at Contra Costa Times >>

California Democrats neutral on Proposition 19
The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO—Executive Board members of the California Democratic Party on Sunday took a neutral stance on a ballot measure that would legalize and tax marijuana in the state.

Proposition 19, if approved by California voters in November, would allow adults to cultivate marijuana and enable local governments to regulate and tax sales of the plant to raise revenue.

Complete Story at SJ Merc >>

Joey's Journey: Medical Marijuana Saves 10 Year Old Child's Life

Knocking on deaths door, 10 year old Joey Perez was slowly dying. The potpourri of prescription medications he’d consumed since the age of 5 were damaging his body beyond repair. The side effects were literally killing him. Doctors had no answers, or any safe alternatives. Their only suggestion was the combination of a few more meds, and to experiment with what happened next. Mieko, Joeys mother, knew his body was weak and shutting down. She knew his fragile body could not handle the addition of any more toxic medicines. Luckily for Joey, her experience as a legal researcher gave her the tools she needed to start her and Joey on this journey. A healing journey with an effective treatment - Medical Marijuana.

Joey was diagnosed with Autism at 18 months old. His mother, Mieko has been fighting that battle ever since. Her life is not consumed with why Joey has Autism, she now focuses on what she can do to effectively treat her sons condition.

Mieko was taking the advice of her doctors, and experimenting with a slew of different prescriptions for her severely autistic son. At one time, Joey was taking 6 different medications - up to 3 times a day. As a result of the side effects, Joey became malnourished and was diagnosed with Anorexia. Every day, his condition got worse. He was deteriorating in front of his mothers eyes. Joey clearly showed all the signs that he was starving. Besides being under weight and malnourished, Joeys eyes were sunk in and you could easily see all the bones in his chest. He was refusing to eat. Even the costume of a buff super hero could not disguise the starved body underneath. All of Joeys family and friends were helplessly watching him die.

Then Mieko received the most dreaded news a parent could ever hear. Joeys medical prognosis at that time was high probability of death within 6 months. She and her husband Eric were devastated. With the thought of him dying, she clung on to him tightly, and prayed for a breakthrough. Joey needed a miracle to occur.

Mieko believes through a divine intervention she found the research of Dr. Bernard Rimland, founder of the Autism Research Institute.

Complete Story >>

Letter from Prop 19

Dear Friend,

When our opponents come after one of our allies, we've got to be ready to fight back. That's why I'm writing you today.

Tomorrow morning, our opponents are holding a press conference in Sacramento to call for the resignation of Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP, because of the organization's bold endorsement of Proposition 19.

We've got to make sure the NAACP knows we've got their back. Will you take a moment and show your support for Alice Huffman and the NAACP?

Click here to sign our petition in support of Alice Huffman and the NAACP!

We're proud to have the support of the California NAACP because they not only know that the war on drugs has failed -- but that its failure has disproportionately affected African Americans. Arrests of African Americans are double, triple, and quadruple the rate of whites in California's 25 biggest counties, even though studies show that African Americans consume marijuana at lower rates than whites.

You'd think with statistics like these that the NAACP's support would be unquestioned. But the stats have always been on our side -- and that hasn't stopped the politics-as-usual crowd from distorting the facts.

This year, when we pass Prop 19, the dialogue will completely change. But until then, we've got to be bold and stand strong when our allies come under attack.

Please sign our petition in support of Alice Huffman and the NAACP. Let's collect the thousands of signatures we need to show our allies and opponents alike that we'll stand up and be heard when attacks come our way.

Thank you so much for your support.

Sincerely,

Jeff Jones
Proponent, Yes on 19

U.S. Must Wean Law Enforcement from Marijuana Arrest Addiction

By George Rohrbacher, Member, NORML Board of Directors
Opinion by NORML

In America since 1965, there have been 21 million arrests for marijuana, 9 out of 10 for quantities of an ounce or less. Over 800,000 were arrested for pot last year, with people of color and the young being arrested and incarcerated in hugely disproportionate numbers. Under current Washington State law, if arrested for possession of even the tiniest amount of cannabis, a person faces a mandatory night in jail, handcuffs, mugshots, fingerprints, and a criminal record that, thanks to the internet and data-mining, might follow a person for the rest of their life.

The Mexican Cartels have murdered tens of thousands of people in their own country and now their violence is spilling over the boarder into America. Sales of marijuana in the US are estimated to account for half of the Cartels’ revenue stream. By simply legalizing pot, by taking the business and the profits of marijuana out of the hands of these criminals, taxing and regulating cannabis would be a devastating blow to organized crime. And at the same time, regulation would ensure our citizens that standards of purity and potency had been met.

California, Oregon and Washington have all had marijuana legalization initiatives filed this year. California’s initiative already has enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, and recent polling of likely voters found that 56% plan to vote, “Yes”, on the measure come November. California’s Board of Tax Equalization has estimated that the legalization of cannabis will bring $1.4 billion in new tax revenues to the state’s cash-strapped municipalities.

This month, a Pew Charitable Trust poll found that 73% of all Americans are in favor of legal access to marijuana as medicine. Used as medicine for over 4,500 years, the DEA’s own Chief Administrative Law Judge, Francis L. Young ruled: “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man…” Without even holding a hearing, and over the objections of the American Medical Association, all uses of cannabis were outlawed by Congress in 1937. Since California’s passage of Prop 215 in 1996, 14 states have now taken back their medical marijuana rights from the Feds. Much safer than aspirin (gastric bleeding, death) or Tylenol (liver damage, death), marijuana is safer than virtually every other over-the-counter and prescription medicine for sale in America. Cannabis is also far safer, as a recreational drug, than either the very speedily deadly alcohol or the slowly lethal tobacco. Marijuana is not only safer for the individual, but it is safer for the society, too. A Seattle Police Sgt. patrolling Seattle Hempfest’s cannabis-imbibing 100,000 person crowd told me, “…compared to the crowds coming out of Safeco or Quest field after a game, patrolling Hempfest is like patrolling a Girl Scout picnic.”

Through my own recreational use, I discovered marijuana the all-natural non-toxic pain medicine with far less severe side-effects than the prescription alternatives. I believe cannabis should be legal for medical, recreational, food and fiber uses. Cannabis should be legal for American farmers to grow. If cannabis is legal for all, sick people will be able to get it. Ending this prohibition, America must also wean law enforcement from its 70-year-old marijuana arrest addiction. Cannabis use didn’t turn either Michael Phelps or Barack Obama into a couch potato or a loser. It’s time to legalize it. Tax and regulate marijuana…Now.

George Rohrbacher is a retired cattle rancher, former WA state senator (R), former Commissioner of Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, currently serving on the NORML Board of Directors (For additional information please review the titles of two of the blogs I’ve written for the NORML blog: “Confessions of a Medical Marijuana Patient” and “Marijuana Prohibition and Fatherhood”)

This essay was originally published in the Peninsula Daily News on May 4th.

Preliminary hearing for Calaveras Medical Marijuana collective operator set for Monday

The most significant medical marijuana case to be heard in Calaveras County and perhaps the entire Motherlode in a over a decade begins in earnest Monday. Jay Smith is facing felony distribution, possession for sales, and cultivation of marijuana charges. His preliminary hearing is set to be heard in Department 3 before retired San Joaquin County visiting judge Hon. James E. Cadle at 1:30 pm. The defense has filed a brief asserting Smith's rights under state law as a medical marijuana patient and collective grow operator. The defense outlines statutory and case law and requests case dismissal. The defense has also filed a motion to compel the District Attorney to provide discovery, contending that the prosecution is failing to provide copies of the evidence in this case. No response by the DA was filed as of last week.

At the preliminary hearing, the prosecution must show that there is probable cause to believe that a crime was committed and probable cause that Smith likely did committed that crime. If the judge agrees with the prosecution, the case will be bound over for trial and the defendant held to answer to the charges.

Click below to view a complete summary of the case.