Medical Marijuana Defense Motion to Dismiss Denied

In Calaveras County, Judge John Martin has denied a motion to dismiss by defense attorney's for medical marijuana patient and collective operator, Jay Smith. Jay Smith was arrested by the Calaveras County Sheriff's Department when undercover deputies used a legitimate patients medical marijuana recommendation to join the collective and purchase marijuana. Smith faces felony charges of Sale of Marijuana,

The motion cited extensive case law, critical examination of the preliminary hearing testimony of Deputies Avila and Hoffman, attorney general guidelines, police reports, and of the hearing itself.

In denying the motion, Judge Martin did not address the medical marijuana defense or any other argument preferred by the defense.

The ruling denying the motion is short and to the point stating:

In ruling on a motion to set aside the information, the reviewing court may not substitute it's judgment for that of the magistrate, and if there is some evidence to support the information, the reviewing court will not inquire into it's sufficiency. Rideout v Superior Court (1967( 67 Cal.2d 471, 474

The evidence at the preliminary hearing need only support a reasonable inference of guilt, and such inference need not be the only inference the court could draw, or even the more probable one.

The court finds there is some evidence to support the information. The motion to set aside the information is denied.

A ruling such as this can be viewed as potentially side stepping the issue and sending it to the trial or appeals process (presuming the defense will appeal).

Letter to the Editor: YesOn19.com

On behalf of the campaign, I'm proud to announce the launch of our new website at YesOn19.com! I hope you'll take a moment to check it out -- and then forward this email to five friends, encouraging them to check out the site too.

It's our goal to make the new website a great resource for you to learn more about the campaign and get involved. That's why our homepage centers around the three main reasons to support the initiative, and makes it easy to take action -- whether that's signing up to volunteer, making a contribution, or (as you've already done!) getting email updates from the campaign.

Besides highlighting these important actions with a fresh new design, we've added a lot of engaging content to the site, including:

• A "Voices" page that captures the main reasons you should support Prop 19
• Access to our brand new RSS feed that will allow you to stay up to date on all the breaking news from the campaign -- just click the orange RSS icon at the top-right of the page
• The latest news, videos, endorsements, and more

So what are you waiting for? Head over to the new YesOn19.com and check it out.

Thanks again for all your support. We hope you like the new site!

Sincerely,

Jeff Jones
Proponent, Yes on 19

Jay Smith's Motion Denied

*BREAKING NEWS*
On Friday, August 20, 2010 before the Hon. John Martin in Calaveras Superior Court, a motion to set aside the charges filed by Jay Smith's attorney Ean Vizzi was heard. An exhaustive brief was filed prior to the hearing on behalf of the defense.

Jay Smith, a medical marijuana patient and operator of a medical collective was arrested Jan. 4 in the Valley Oaks Center parking lot in Valley Springs on felony charges of sales, cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale.

We have received word that the motion to set aside the indictment was denied on Aug 24, 2010.

We are awaiting confirmation, more details, and a copy of the ruling.

More on this story can be found following the links here:
http://calaverascannabis.co.cc/html/calaveras.shtml#Local%20News%20Archive
http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/articles/2010/04/13/top_story/top01_marijuana.txt

The Polling Disparity and other News Blunts July 29

The Broadus Effect:
LA Weekly

Of six polls released so far on Prop 19, the November ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older, three have the yeas winning easily, while three have it losing narrowly.

What gives? As usual, if you have a polling conundrum, Nate Silver is your man. And in this case, his hypothesis is fascinating.

Silver is the stat whiz who first created a formula for predicting -- with astounding accuracy -- the performance of baseball players. Then, under the pseudonym Poblano, he began analyzing polls to forecast the many outcomes of the long Democratic presidential primary campaign. Then he set up shop as fivethirtyeight.com, which has since been bought by The New York Times. He predicted with uncanny accuracy the 2008 election.

Anyway, Silver notes that three polls in which Prop 19 is winning are "robopolls," meaning they're automated -- you push a number on your phone to respond. In the three where Prop 19 is losing, the pollsters are actual humans asking the respondents questions.

Silver notices something else: Huge spreads in the numbers among African-Americans.

In the robopolls, blacks favor Prop 19 by 28 points or more. In the only human poll where they break out demographics, African-Americans are opposed by 12. There are large disparities among Latino voters, too.

The hypothesis: The automated polls give the respondent a more secure feeling of anonymity and no social stigma, so he feels free to voice his true opinion. (Silver also notes that it's possible the automated polls are having trouble getting a representative sample of African-Americans because they have a lower response rate to robopolls.)

But if indeed black voters are more honest with the robopolls, it would amount to a mirror of the Bradley effect.

More at LA Weekly>>

Federal Inconsistency shouldn't stop the legalization of marijuana
LA Times

The law is the law. If we unquestioningly accepted that maxim, imagine where we would be today. Jim Crow would be alive and well, rivers and skies would be polluted, and women wouldn't be allowed to vote.

Yet such is the mindset of many of those who criticize Proposition 19, the marijuana regulation and taxation initiative on the November ballot. In his July 18 Times Op-Ed article, UCLA public policy professor Mark A.R. Kleiman declares that state legalization "can't be done." He points out, correctly, that if the initiative is successful, the federal marijuana prohibition laws will remain in place. What he assumes, incorrectly, is that federal agents will swarm into California, busting farmers and arresting distributors and shopkeepers, to say nothing of the garden stores that sell them equipment and supplies, the accountants who do their books and the municipal tax officials who delight in assessing and collecting the new tax revenues.

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Kleiman might well have uttered, "The law is the law."

But the law is neither absolute nor infallible, and that's why Californians can — and should — legalize, regulate and tax marijuana-related commerce.

The federal-state dynamic concerning marijuana is not complicated. Under our system of federalism, both the states and the feds may prohibit commerce in marijuana, but neither is required to do so. Similarly, during alcohol prohibition (1920-33), commerce in alcoholic beverages was prohibited not only by federal law (the Volstead Act) but by the laws of most states. In 1923, New York repealed its state prohibition laws, leaving enforcement, for the remaining 10 years, entirely to the feds. California voters overwhelmingly did the same thing in 1932, one year before national prohibition was repealed.

Let's think this through. If Proposition 19 passes, two important balls roll into the feds' court. The first is that the sole responsibility and expense of enforcing marijuana prohibition will be shifted to them. After Nov. 2, marijuana "offenders" could be arrested only by federal agents, prosecuted only under federal law, and sentenced only to federal detention.

More at LA Times >>

Prop 19: The Battle of the Polls

News Blunts - 7-27

Medical Marijuana Legal in Washington D.C.
Washington Post

Medical marijuana is now legal in the District after the Democrat-controlled Congress declined to overrule a D.C Council bill that allows the city to set up as many as eight dispensaries where chronically ill patients can purchase the drug.

Former San Jose Chief of Police: Legalize Pot
SF Chronicle

California voters have a chance on this November's ballot to bring common sense to law enforcement by legalizing marijuana for adults. As San Jose's retired chief of police and a cop with 35 years experience on the front lines in the war on marijuana, I'm voting yes.

I've seen the prohibition's terrible impact at close range.

Like an increasing number of law enforcers, I have learned that most bad things about marijuana - especially the violence made inevitable by an obscenely profitable black market - are caused by the prohibition, not by the plant.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) said in a statement the bill become law after Congress finished its business Monday night because neither the House nor Senate opted to intervene.

The council approved the bill in May, and under Home Rule Congress had 30 legislative days to review it.

Sutter Creek looks to impose moratorium
Ledger Dispatch

The Sutter Creek City Council has asked its attorney to draft a new ordinance to repeal and replace the current ordinance allowing medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits.
After the approval of the agenda and a public comment session, councilwoman Linda Rianda told the council a use permit application recently turned into the city by someone intending to open a dispensary on Sutter Hill had caused her to become concerned.

Pot Grows targeted in Sweep
Stockton Record
A team of state and local law enforcement officers eradicated 21,760 marijuana plants from clandestine growing sites on private property in Sheep Ranch and Calaveritas in Calaveras County last week, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Department announced.

Participating officers came from the Calaveras Narcotics Enforcement Unit, the California Department of Justice, the Alpine County Narcotics Team and the California Department of Fish and Game. The seized immature plants weighed 2,400 pounds. The team also seized 15 pounds of processed marijuana.

Note: No arrests were made. No arrests have been made in the Mokelumne Hill burglary murder either.

San Jose Looks to Tax Medical Marijuana
San Jose Mercury

San Jose city officials are recommending a ballot measure that would create a tax on pot, drawing opposition from medical marijuana proponents.

The ten percent medical marijuana tax, if approved, would give San Jose the highest medical cannabis tax in the state. Proponents say this would put an undue burden on patients.

Yes on Prop 19 Winning 52%-36%; Majority Supports Legalizing Marijuana

Proposition 19, which would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana for adults over 21 years old, is currently winning by a wide margin among California voters according to a new PPP poll. The measure is supported by 52% of voters while opposed by only 36%.

Prop 19 PPP
Support 52%
Oppose 36%

This is the largest margin of support we have seen from recent polling on Prop 19. Interestingly, the poll found support among African Americans to be extremely high. From PPP blog:

Democrats are more likely to throw their support behind the prop than Republicans. 62% of Democrats, 37% of Republicans and 55% of Independents support Prop 19.

African-Americans are the strongest supporters of Prop 19; 68:32, followed by Whites who support it 53:37.

Those are surprisingly high numbers among African Americans. A SurveyUSA poll from earlier this month had African Americans on average about as likely to support Prop 19 as whites. Significantly, a small percentage of African Americans said they were certain to oppose it.

Jay Smith Case Set to be continued

Jay Smith, the collective owner facing felony distribution and cultivation charges in Calaveras County in what Access for Safe Americans called "Identity Theft to Entrap Medical Marijuana Provider" is facing more delay in his court case.

Ian Vizzi, Jay Smith's attorney filed a brilliant motion to set aside the felony indictment that obviously caused the DA pause. Highlighting established and clear state law, case law, and the attorney general guidelines, Vizzi held class and the Calaveras County District Attorney was the student.

DA Seth Mathews responded with a request to continue, highlighting his need to further study the issues presented by Smith's attorney. Vizzi has agreed to the continuance. It is expected that the case will be continued into late August, early September. More details as they become available.

VA Changes Rules, Allows Medical Marijuana Use

The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years.

A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states.

The policy will not permit department doctors to prescribe marijuana. But it will address the concern of many patients who use the drug that they could lose access to their prescription pain medication if caught.

Under department rules, veterans can be denied pain medications if they are found to be using illegal drugs. Until now, the department had no written exception for medical marijuana.

This has led many patients to distrust their doctors, veterans say. With doctors and patients pressing the veterans department for formal guidance, agency officials began drafting a policy last fall.

“When states start legalizing marijuana we are put in a bit of a unique position because as a federal agency, we are beholden to federal law,” said Dr. Robert Jesse, the principal deputy under secretary for health in the veterans department.

At the same time, Dr. Jesse said, “We didn’t want patients who were legally using marijuana to be administratively denied access to pain management programs.”

The new, written policy applies only to veterans using medical marijuana in states where it is legal. Doctors may still modify a veteran’s treatment plan if the veteran is using marijuana, or decide not to prescribe pain medicine altogether if there is a risk of a drug interaction. But that decision will be made on a case-by-case basis, not as blanket policy, Dr. Jesse said.

More at NY Times>>

Oakland Legalizes Large Scale Medical Marijuana Farms

OAKLAND, California (Reuters) – The city of Oakland, California on Tuesday legalized large-scale marijuana cultivation for medical use and will issue up to four permits for "industrial" cultivation starting next year.

The move by the San Francisco Bay Area city aims to bring medical marijuana cultivation into the open and allow the city to profit by taxing those who grow it.

The resolution passed the city council easily after a nearly four-hour debate that pitted small-scale "garden" growers against advocates of a bigger, industrial system that would become a "Silicon Valley" of pot.

"This is going to grow as an industry. And someone is going to have a high-tech producer," Council Member Jean Quan said during the debate.

Oakland already taxes sales of medical marijuana, but cultivation has existed in a legal gray area. Council members plan later action to levy new taxes on growers.

The city's decision is separate from a statewide ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use which Californians will vote on in November.

More>>

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 >>

Union Support Grows for Prop 19

The council that oversees the political work of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union endorses Proposition 19 on the November ballot, giving proponents a significant campaign boost.

Proponents of the marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot won the endorsement Wednesday of the council that oversees the political work of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in California, as well as one of the union's major locals, giving proponents a significant boost to their campaign.

They also had hoped to win the endorsement of the California Labor Federation, which met this week in San Diego, but decided not to press for a vote and settled instead on persuading the powerful organization to remain neutral — which it did.

"Obviously, I would have liked to have had a full endorsement," said Dan Rush, who oversees special operations for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 5, and has pushed efforts to gain union support for the measure. But he noted that the neutral stance means the 1,200 member unions are now free to endorse the initiative, and contribute money and campaign volunteers.

"I'm expecting to garner the endorsements of most of the major unions in California over the next several weeks," Rush said.

More at LA Times>>