cannabisnews.com: It's About Time The State Clarifies Med. Pot Rules





It's About Time The State Clarifies Med. Pot Rules
Posted by FoM on January 26, 2000 at 19:51:15 PT
Editorial Opinion
Source: Record Searchlight
More than three years after voters passed the medical marijuana initiative, there's finally a legislative effort to determine how just much pot an ill person can grow and possess.Our own Sen. Maurice Johannessen, R-Redding, is stepping forward with a promise to draft an urgent state law to settle Proposition 215's unanswered question of what amount of medicinal marijuana is ``reasonable.''
What a relief that would be. Shasta County Sheriff Jim Pope and law enforcement in general need some help in exactly what their role is in this, as they are now caught between seemingly conflicting state and federal laws.The legislation would benefit both patients holding doctor's prescriptions and law enforcement officials who have been left to interpret the act on their own. Johannessen intends to consult with law enforcement and other experts while formulating his bill. He would do well to have Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker testify on the innovative approach his office took by coming up with its own set of rules in the absence of any state direction, and without federal intervention.There was an attempt last year to clarify the law with the issuance of medical marijuana identity cards. The legislation, Senate Bill 848, is stalled.Guidelines would go far in removing the fear of arrest among covered users and keep officers from wasting their time on cases that turn out to be legitimate. For example, guidelines could have spared the time and expense of prosecuting pot patient Richard Levin of Redding, and keep in mind that this prosecution and everything surrounding the Levin case includes a lot of taxpayer money. A Superior Court jury found him not guilty of growing marijuana for sale after his arrest for cultivating 41 small plants and possessing 22 ounces of the drug. His case has turned into a legal tug-of-war with federal agents confiscating the evidence despite Judge Bradley Boeckman's directive that the marijuana be returned.Rules also might have prevented Redding residents Jim Hall and his 62-year-old mother, Lydia, from going to trial this week for growing marijuana despite their claim that it was a medical garden. Shane Navarro of Anderson is using a Proposition 215 defense in his upcoming court case. In Trinity County this month, the case of Russell Amos didn't even make it to trial because a judge determined the Denny man's marijuana stash was for medicinal purposes.It's time to stop charging people in these circumstances and quit relying on the courts to sort everything out. We hope the Legislature, district attorneys, police chiefs and sheriffs throughout the state get behind Johannessen's plan to bring some order to the chaotic enforcement of Proposition 215 and bring to a halt this legal conundrum.Published: January 26, 2000©1999 Record Searchlight - The E.W. Scripps Co. Related Articles:Pot Amount Issue in Trial - 1/26/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4489.shtmlJohannessen Seeks Restrictions on Use of MMJ - 1/22/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4435.shtmlSome Patients Find Pot is an Arresting Experience-1/12/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4285.shtml 
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