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| Pot Club Frustrated By Supremes Ruling |
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Posted by FoM on May 18, 2001 at 20:45:59 PT By Liz Highleyman Source: Bay Area Reporter 
The future of medical marijuana suddenly grew more cloudy Monday, May 14, as proponents sought to interpret the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision disallowing a medical defense for seriously ill patients who use the drug for health reasons. At a press conference on Monday following the 8-0 Supreme Court decision against clubs that provide medical cannabis, Robert Raich, attorney for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative said, "We are saddened and disappointed that the Supreme Court ruled against providing medicine to seriously ill and dying patients." However, OCBC co-founder and director Jeff Jones told the Bay Area Reporter that the ruling was "more of a frustration" than a disappointment, and that given past rulings, he had not expected a positive outcome. The ruling upheld an injunction that enjoined the club from distributing marijuana, overturning an earlier appeals court ruling that held that the OCBC could provide the herb to seriously ill patients with a valid medical necessity defense. Jones likened the justices' decision to the 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of slavery. Just as that decision helped spark the Civil War, Jones said that Monday's decision "could be the ruling that ignites a civil movement to change the laws regarding medical cannabis." The OCBC plans to go back to district court in an attempt to find other avenues of litigation that might be more successful. According to Raich, "We have many other issues to present in the district court which were not ripe for appellate review last time around. We will be pursuing all of these issues now." Said Jones, "We believe the truth is behind us, and that marijuana is a therapeutic and beneficial plant. If we have to take this to a jury, we will." A recent case in Sonoma County suggests that a jury might look favorably on the OCBC's case. On April 18, a Sonoma jury acquitted two men charged with cultivating medicinal cannabis for members of a San Francisco marijuana club. The jury ruled that Ken Hayes and Michael Foley, executive director and dispensary manager, respectively, of Californians Helping Alleviate Medical Problems at the time of their arrest, could be considered primary caregivers for patients in accordance with Proposition 215. The proposition, passed by the state's voters in 1996, allows a patient or primary caregiver to cultivate and possess cannabis for medical purposes, but did not specify how medical marijuana could be distributed. The Sonoma case, however, involved state law, whereas the OCBC case was prosecuted under federal drug statutes. According to the American Medical Marijuana Association, medical marijuana laws still stand in the several states that have passed them. The AMMA predicted that medical cannabis clubs "will simply switch from distributing medical pot to helping patients grow their own." Dale Gieringer of the California chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, one of the original authors of Proposition 215, denounced the Supreme Court for upholding "a morally bankrupt and unenforceable policy." It would be a "serious mistake" for the federal government to try to close California's cannabis clubs, which "provide a valuable service to their members and their communities," said Gieringer. "As soon as one club is closed, others will open. The government would be better advised to change its policy, and not waste more law enforcement resources in a misguided and unwinnable prohibitionist campaign to deny medicine to sick people." According to Jones, a jury is likely to rule in favor of medicinal cannabis "because the jury is us, not a bunch of government bureaucrats who are tied up with 'sending the wrong message' to a kid by allowing his parent who is sick with cancer to have his medicine." Jones's hopes were further bolstered by a CNN.com poll on Monday showing that 78 percent of more than 80,000 respondents agreed that people should be allowed to use marijuana for medical purposes. News Article Courtesy of MapInc. Source: Bay Area Reporter (CA) California NORML C.H.A.M.P. Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative O.C.B.C. Versus The U.S. Government News CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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