cannabisnews.com: State Lawmakers Craft Bill on Pot Defense





State Lawmakers Craft Bill on Pot Defense
Posted by CN Staff on February 20, 2003 at 07:01:10 PT
By Josh Richman, Staff Writer
Source: Oakland Tribune 
Three California members of Congress are preparing a bipartisan bill to let medical marijuana users, growers and providers protect themselves from federal criminal conviction -- a bill sure to face an uphill battle. Reps. Sam Farr, D-Carmel; Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma; and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, are "putting together a bill that would basically say that in states that have medical marijuana statutes, you are able to use as a defense that you were in possession or distributing ... marijuana for medical reasons," said Rochelle Dornatt, Farr's chief of staff. 
"If you would present that evidence and the jury agrees, you would be found not guilty," she said; if a jury remained unconvinced the intent was medicinal, a defendant would still be convicted under the Controlled Substances Act. "The idea is that juries need to know whether you were doing something you believed was lawful." Dornatt said the bill was inspired in part by the recent federal convictions of medical marijuana growers Ed Rosenthal of Oakland and Bryan Epis of Chico. Farr also was concerned about last year's Drug Enforcement Administration raid of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana cooperative near Santa Cruz within his district. "He's become close to them and feels they run a very tight ship, a very clean op- eration," Dornatt said. "He was very upset to see agents come in and upset the clinic and destroy the marijuana plants." The bill won't move easily, Dornatt acknowledged: "Given the current conservative makeup of Congress, and a Supreme Court decision that weighed against medical marijuana, passing this bill would be a sea change." But she said supporters "will try to do little things daily that will help build a critical mass of support -- just one more co-sponsor per day, or one more conversation with a colleague, or one more visit by constituents to their representative. Eventually, these smaller steps will result in a current that will help change many minds." Farr was in Sacramento on Wednesday accepting thanks from Rosenthal's and Epis' families. Also present were some federal jurors who convicted Rosenthal but later regretted doing so, claiming they were duped by a system that didn't give them the whole story of Rosenthal's protection by state and local laws. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer attended, too. "I support Congressman Farr's bipartisan effort to change federal law so that all the facts would be before a jury," he said later Wednesday. "I think many people are offended by the lack of due process associated with the Rosenthal conviction. It seems to me to be just fundamental fairness to allow his Proposition 215 defense to have been presented to the jury," Lockyer said. Rohrabacher's chief of staff Rick Dykema said this bill isn't as far-reaching as one penned in 2001 by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and co-sponsored by Rohrabacher. That would have moved marijuana to a less-restricted list within the Controlled Substances Act, and would have made medical use federally legal in states with their own medical marijuana laws. The Frank bill -- the latest of many similar ones he has authored -- was never even reviewed in committee, Dykema said. "Often ideas have to go to many Congresses before they get enacted. We recognize this is a difficult situation. As long as most states don't have medical marijuana laws, generally their congressmen are not going to want to be on record supporting something like this." Rohrbacher is bucking most of his party on this issue because "he wants to support his constituents ... and not have the federal government interfering with the wishes of the people of California," Dykema said, adding the congressman also draws upon his personal experience of a few years ago. "He had a situation in which he thought he might've been able to help his own mother, who had gone through a difficult time in which she wasn't eating," Dykema said; some patients use marijuana to stimulate appetite. "It turned out she was able to recover from the wasting without it, but he was still concerned that even though Californians had voted for medical marijuana, he was facing a situation where he might not have been able to legally obtain it for his mother."Note: Bipartisan plan aimed to provide protection from federal criminal conviction.Source: Oakland Tribune (CA)Author: Josh Richman, Staff WriterPublished: Thursday, February 20, 2003Copyright: 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. Contact: triblet angnewspapers.com Website: http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:WAMM Raid -- September 5, 2002 http://freedomtoexhale.com/valc.htmEd Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmBryan Epis Protest Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/protestpics.htmMedical Pot Bill Rejects Jail http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15512.shtmlMarijuana Crusader Defends His Healing Mission http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15511.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on February 20, 2003 at 07:27:38 PT
Couple of links
This Reuters article confirms that cannabis is NOT an addictive drug....of course, they bent over backwards to not actually mention MJ at any point....http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/051/nation/Brain_study_opens_a_door_on_treatment_for_addiction+.shtmlLook at this one....a horny track coach molests girls for years and gets NO JAIL TIME... typical. Not sure why he was let off - perhaps he's in the same peer group as the ruling elite? Old white man? Or maybe it's just that a gym coach is the opposite end of spectrum from the bohemian underclass they're trying to eradicate. Who can understand the whimsical nature of our police state....http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/051/metro/Savio_coach_admits_to_molesting_teens+.shtml
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