cannabisnews.com: Whose Laws Are The Police Enforcing?





Whose Laws Are The Police Enforcing?
Posted by FoM on January 14, 2000 at 16:19:11 PT
DrugSense Weekly January 14, 2000 #132
Source: DrugSense 
In the election of 1996, California law enforcement officials and agencies made the following official statements in the California Voter Guide:"Proposition 215 legalizes marijuana use for 'any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.' This could include stress, headaches, upset stomach, insomnia, a stiff neck . . . or just about anything." 
"Proposition 215 does not require a written prescription. Anyone with the 'oral recommendation or approval by a physician' can grow, possess or smoke marijuana. No medical examination is required." "This initiative makes marijuana available to the public without FDA approval or regulation.""This initiative allows unlimited quantities of marijuana to be grown anywhere . . . without any regulation or restrictions." "It is marijuana legalization." Listed below these bold public assertions were the following organizations: * The California State Sheriffs Association * The California District Attorneys Association * California Police Chiefs Association. * The California Narcotic Officers Association and * The California Peace Officers Association From: 1996 Official Voter Guide: "Argument Against Proposition 215" See: http://vote96.ss.ca.gov/Vote96/html/BP/215noarg.htm How can all these California law enforcement officials tell voters that Prop. 215 would legalize marijuana and allow patients to grow as much as they need for personal medical use -- in an official public statement to the voters of California -- and then turn around and insist that the voters never approved any of these things? Patients and caregivers acted in good faith following passage of 215 and have been cynically arrested by local authorities who never had any intention of conforming to the voters will and the present state law. Hypocrisy may not be a crime, but entrapment is and when the action of local authorities flaunt our laws they are undermining the fundamental trust of their oaths.The ugly truth is that the police are refusing to honor a law they don't like. Medical marijuana patients are being raided, arrested, and dragged through the criminal justice system, in record numbers and nearly everyone is afraid. Arrest statewide are up 12% since the passage of 215, despite the fact that the new law exempts patients and caregivers from prosecution or any type of sanctions.These law enforcement leaders and agencies cannot have it both ways. Either they are guilty of making deliberately fraudulent and misleading statements, or they are fraudulently refusing to uphold what they know to be the legal consequences of that election.Moreover, according to the California Constitution, a law passed by the voters must be enforced, even if it conflicts with federal law, until that law has been challenged in appellate court. No such court challenge has been made of California's new medical marijuana law, nor is one likely, despite repeated slurs on the new law by officials. Unable to beat the law in court, police have decided to challenge individuals instead with a lock-em-up-let-the-courts-decide approach that has been a disaster for all involved. For years, the police have told us, "We just enforce the laws, if you don't like them, then change them." But now that the voters have passed law and the police are refusing to honor that law, we are painfully discovering that police are their own political lobby with heavy clout that runs all the way to the Governor's office. Just passing a law no longer means much with law enforcement and our elected officials are too frightened of them to do anything about it.That's not to say that the police are evil, just that when police no longer follow the laws passed by voters, it is time to stop and take a close look and ask ourselves, "Whose laws are the police enforcing?" The Kubby Files: http://www.kubby.org/ By Steve Kubby, National DirectorThe American Medical Marijuana Assoc.http://www.kubby.com/AMMA.htmlClick the link to read all of:DrugSense Weekly January 14, 2000 #132http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2000/ds00.n132.htmlCannabis News Medical Marijuana Archives:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on January 14, 2000 at 17:23:42 PT
Heinlein's Dictum in action
Robert Heinlein once wrote that in any 'mature' society, 'civil servant' is semantically equivalent to 'civil master'. In short, politicians are above the laws made by referendum because of their greater 'wisdom', and cops break the laws they are supposed to enforce. All done with an unctuous smile (or in the cops' case, bared teeth and a truncheon).Time we let these civil servants know what happens to them when the guard dogs growl at their masters. Get active. Vote! 
[ Post Comment ]

Post Comment


Name: Optional Password: 
E-Mail: 
Subject: 
Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message]
Link URL: 
Link Title: