cannabisnews.com: Cops Want Pot Law Made Clearer





Cops Want Pot Law Made Clearer
Posted by FoM on February 01, 2000 at 13:34:17 PT
By Maline Hazle, Record Searchlight
Source: Record Searchlight
Local law enforcers want legislation that will allow them to pursue illegal pot without tramping through medical marijuana patients' gardens, Shasta County Undersheriff Larry Schaller said Monday.''We would like to get law enforcement out of medicine so that we can limit ourselves to addressing those cases that are outside the law,'' Schaller said.
But the measures being proposed for clarification of Proposition 215 are illegal, medical marijuana proponents said in their own letter to state Sen. Maurice Johannessen, R-Redding.Both Schaller and Sheriff Jim Pope, who appeared Monday on a Redding radio show, gave new details of a proposal they've sent to Johannessen, who is drafting legislation to clear up what they say are ambiguities in the voter approved Compassionate Use Act.Medical marijuana proponents say those ambiguities don't really exist.''It's only a vague law to law enforcement officials who see that much freedom as a threat to their authority and their federal marijuana suppression grants,'' said Steve Kubby of the American Medical Marijuana Association in a letter sent late last week to Johannessen.Schaller said the proposal sent to Johannessen was developed jointly by the sheriff's office and the Shasta County district attorney's office. It was also sent to Assemblyman Dick Dickerson, R-Redding, and the California State Sheriffs' Association.''If marijuana is going to be used as medicine in certain cases then it needs to be treated more like medicine,'' Schaller said. ''The strength, the dosage, the frequency of use — that's what needs to be clarified.''Local law enforcement is especially interested in that clarification after the December acquittal of Richard Levin, a 49-year-old Redding man who grew marijuana for medical use. He was arrested and charged with possession of the drug for sale.Last week another medical marijuana case went to trial against Lydia Hall, 62, and her son Jim, 38, both of Redding. That trial is expected to last up to six weeks and at least one other is pending.Those cases have prompted accusations that deputies and prosecutors are skirting the law approved by voters in 1996.''It's appropriate to get (the sheriff's suggestions) into the public forum so people realize we're not trying to defeat the law,'' Schaller said.He said law enforcers want state or county health officials to be appointed to issue permits authorizing medical marijuana use and then notify law enforcement ''so we're not unduly interfering with what's in the law.''In addition, he said, the law should specify a specific number of plants and amount of processed marijuana that patients can possess and should limit patients to obtaining prescriptions from physicians who are familiar with their cases.''They shouldn't be able to get it from some Dr. Feelgood over the Internet from Berkeley,'' Schaller said.The proposal also calls for time limits on doctors' recommendations, which should be written prescriptions, not oral advice, he said.The law needs to provide''some clarification that the condition for which it is prescribed is life-threatening or debilitating'' and clarification of the places patients can smoke pot, Schaller said.Finally, the law also should establish what strengths, or dosages, are appropriate.''There's a tremendous disparity in quality of marijuana, a significant difference in THC content, and therefore potency,'' he said.All those issues ''need to be resolved so our resources aren't misdirected,'' he added.But Kubby's letter to Johannessen says those resources already are misdirected because the California constitution mandates that as an initiative statute approved by voters, Prop. 215 ''cannot be limited or restricted by anyone, including sheriffs, district attorneys, the attorney general or even the legislature, unless approved by the electors.''He argues that the law clearly states that marijuana can be used to treat any number of specified illness and pain or ''any other illness'' for which it gives relief. Legislators cannot limit that, said Kubby, who is national director of the American Medical Marijuana Association, which has an office in Dana Point just south of Los Angles.''We know most police and elected officials hate this law, but isn't that what tolerance and democracy are all about — recognizing other people's rights — even the ones you may find personally repugnant,'' he wrote.Reporter Maline Hazle can be reached at 225-8266 or at mhazle redding.comBy Maline HazleRecord SearchlightPublished: February 1, 2000© 2000 Record Searchlight - The E.W. Scripps Co. Related Articles: Levin May Get Seized Cash Soon - 1/28/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4510.shtmlIt's About Time The State Clarifies Med. Pot Rules-1/26/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4492.shtml
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