cannabisnews.com: Law and Disorder





Law and Disorder
Posted by FoM on March 26, 2000 at 17:08:08 PT
By Laura Hamburg
Source: San Francisco Chronicle 
Californians voted to make medical marijuana legal in 1996. But political paralysis over enforcement has some communities taking matters into their own hands. Before she died of cancer last Christmas Eve, Nemo Vier's mother had shrunk to 65 pounds. 
Each week, Vier would scoop his mom's frail body into his arms and drive her to Mendocino County's cannabis club. There, she'd smoke marijuana to relieve her chronic pain and nausea. In other California counties, Lucia Yvonne Vier, a 48-year-old cosmetologist who died holding her Bible and rosary beads, could have gone to jail for smoking marijuana to ease her pain. But not in Mendocino County. Not in the town of Arcata in Humboldt County. And not in San Francisco, where Mayor Willie Brown is due to launch a program that will allow patients like Vier to use marijuana without fear of arrest. All three places are scrappy pockets of resistance in a country where medical marijuana use is a federal crime and in a state that refuses to implement Proposition 215, the medical marijuana law passed by 56 percent of the voters in 1996. Bolstered by the trickle-up will of the people and a handful of maverick officials, these communities are serving as role models in a budding counterinsurgency against the federal government's war on medical marijuana. ``Hell, if Janet Reno herself wants to come in here and arrest me for giving the people what they already voted for, I say fine,'' said Mendocino Sheriff Tony Craver, who worked with District Attorney Norm Vroman last year to launch the state's first countywide medical marijuana program. ``If you're sick, you should not have to worry about arrest or being hassled by the cops or having your property seized just for doing something that is legally protected,'' said Craver, who spent 28 of his 60 years as a street cop. But the concept of relieving simple human suffering hasn't penetrated the ivory towers above the Beltway. There, policy-setters continue to assault medical marijuana under the leadership of a president who claims he didn't inhale -- and neither should any one else. His ``drug czar,'' Gen. Barry McCaffrey, recently called medical marijuana ``a crock.'' Senators Dianne Feinstein and Orrin Hatch are pushing for a law that would make it a crime to discuss on the Internet how to distribute or produce drugs. That means swapping tips on growing medical marijuana would be just as illegal as a Web site that details how to whip up a vat of crank. In Ukiah two years ago, federal agents masquerading as ill patients with prescriptions for medical marijuana conned their way into the Ukiah Cannabis Club and shut it down, along with half a dozen other California clubs. This left seriously ill patients no choice but to pay high street prices for their medicine -- if they could find it. It's these types of government actions and attitudes that are creating a grass-roots backlash. ``It's reefer madness turned around. -- the government doing all these crazy things to the people,'' said Marvin Lehrman, who runs the Ukiah Cannabis Club with his wife Millie, a clinical pharmacist. The Lehrmans risk arrest for continuing to keep the club doors open in defiance of the federal injunction. ``I am disgusted by our government and these politicians. What if it was their mother who was dying? What if their child was sick?'' said Vier, 28, a radio announcer whose mother died of cancer. Vier is committed to spreading his mother's gospel that marijuana should be available to the sick. Vier has a tattoo of his late mother stenciled on into his back, rightnext to a smiling Jesus Christ adorned with wings and the words, ``In Loving Memory.'' It's her 1967 Analy High School graduation portrait, complete with a Ronette-type beehive hairdo. ``I love it how these people in Mendocino don't back down. That's why my mother felt so welcome here,'' he said of the Ukiah Cannabis Club. Medical marijuana proponents like Vier and the Lehrmans are battling on more than one front. In addition to active attempts by the federal government to clamp down on medical marijuana, they are up against political infighting that has paralyzed attempts to make Proposition 215 a reality in the state. State Sen. John Vasconcellos' move to develop a state identification program bogged and died in the last legislative session. It may be revived this session, but in the meantime, politicians in Sacramento are sitting on their hands, afraid to enforce the law. ``Everyone knows what the initiative sought to accomplish -- sick people who have a recommendation form from a physician should be given their medicine,'' said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer. ``Now from there it gets really, really murky. How do you define a caregiver? What is the appropriate quantity? What about distribution? How do you tell the good guys from the bad guys?'' he said. ``The initiative didn't answer any of those questions as it was written, which makes it difficult to enforce the law.'' But as lawmakers struggle with the devils in the details, people in less progressive parts of the state are being persecuted for using medical marijuana. In Sonoma, Placer, Marin and Orange counties, medical marijuana patients are being arrested. Some have been re-arrested after being acquitted. In Shasta County, Sheriff Jim Pope may face contempt-of-court charges for turning over medical marijuana to federal agents, even though he was ordered by a judge to return it to a patient. Despite both federal and state restrictions, counties like Mendocino continue to offer a haven for patients like Chris Sorenson, a 39-year-old former firefighter with glaucoma who uses marijuana to relieve the pressure building behind his eyes. ``If it wasn't for the marijuana I'd be blind,'' Sorenson said. ``Doctors told me 10 years ago I'd be blind in five years. I just want to hold on to my sight as long as possible so I can see my newborn baby grow up.'' Mendocino also makes it safe for Jamie Ryan, 23, who has a rare neurological disease called cerebellar ataxia. Because she cannot use her hands, which are curled in rippling fits of muscle spasms, Ryan leans forward from her wheelchair and smokes marijuana from a battery-operated pipe. Marijuana eases her spasticity and stimulates her appetite, said her mother, Sharon Short, who buys marijuana in Ukiah to make Jamie rice crispy treats at home. ``I can't believe handguns are legal, but I am made to feel like a criminal for helping my daughter,'' said Short. For Laurie Sylstra, 48, of Ukiah, Mendocino's program offers blessed respite from the 17 pills she used to take daily after surgery for a brain aneurysm left her partially paralyzed. After her surgery and a three-month hospital stay, Sylstra was left with two metal clips in her brain, slurred speech, wobbly mobility and searing headaches. For years she gulped handfuls of pills -- legally prescribed narcotics such as Vicodin and Demerol. She took Valium for anxiety; Phenobarbital to prevent seizures; Flexeril, a muscle relaxer; Decadron, to decrease intercranial pressure; and so on. Her prescriptions cost $712 a month. As a card-carrying member the Mendocino program, marijuana costs her half as much. The herb has stopped her headaches, prevents her spasms and has helped wean her off of the prescribed narcotics. Marijuana is the now the only medicine she uses. Those who suffer physical ailments aren't the only ones baffled by efforts to outlaw medical marijuana. ``If I gave you a hundred Percocets or Valium a week, no one would bat an eye,'' said Dr. Marvin Trotter, Mendocino County's public health officer. ``But if you have cancer and you want to smoke a joint to ease your nausea, it's considered a bad thing. As a physician, I just don't get it.'' Other local officials don't get it either. In the Humboldt County town of Arcata, Police Chief Mel Brown personally screens each medical marijuana patient to make sure their doctor's prescription is legitimate. Once cleared, Brown snaps the patient's picture with a digital camera and hands them a laminated ID card, which protects them from arrest by his officers. ``It was 1997, a year after the voters passed Proposition 215, and we realized we better quit bitching about how the state wasn't doing anything to implement the law,'' Brown said. ``Somebody had to do something, so we stepped up the plate.'' Brown said that at first he ``took a lot of heat'' from his fellow officers. ``My peers said, `Good God, Mel's really slipped a cog.' '' But the Arcata program has won over its toughest critics, especially since it lowered the city's police overtime bill. Other counties are now following Mendocino County's lead. Ventura County officials are meeting with Mendocino's district attorney and sheriff to get the low-down on their program, and Tehama County is also considering a medical marijuana plan. In San Francisco, Mayor Willie Brown last month signed into law a medical program largely based on those in Mendocino county and Arcata. The San Francisco program was spearheaded by Supervisor Mark Leno in response to lobbying from local medical marijuana advocates, but he had personal reasons for supporting it as well. Doug Jackson, Leno's partner of 10 years, died of AIDS. ``There were times in his battle with AIDS where marijuana would have been very helpful,'' Leno said. Those who paved the way for medical marijuana program report smooth sailing, thanks to cooperation from patients, doctors and law enforcement officials. Now that Arcata police know who is legal and who isn't, Brown said, they don't waste time and county money going to court to testify against medical marijuana patients. ``It's made our lives easier. Now there's not a person in this town who doesn't know the rules,'' Brown said. ``If any fool wants to abuse the program, we'll arrest them. It's as simple as that.'' HOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAMS WORK MENDOCINO COUNTY: Free countywide identification program started last year. So far, 225 residents have received ID cards. The way it works: -- Patients go to the county's public health department with a written or verbal prescription for medical marijuana from a local physician. -- The public health officer verifies the legitimacy of the prescription by contacting the physician. Information on the patient's medical condition and the name of the physician is then destroyed before the patient's and a designated caregiver's name is forwarded to the county sheriff's office. -- The patient and caregiver are issued a laminated photo identification with name, photo, date of birth, a serial number, expiration date (usually good for one year) and signature. -- Patients or caregivers are allowed up to six flowering marijuana plants or 12 immature plants -- enough to produce up to two pounds of dried marijuana. -- Patients, caregivers and physicians must be residents of Mendocino County. (Exceptions are made for cancer, AIDs and lupus patients who may be treated by out-of-county medical experts.) ARCATA: Free citywide identification program started in 1997. City doesn't keep track of the number of cards issued. The way it works: -- Patients go to the police chief's office with a written or verbal prescription for medical marijuana from a California physician. -- The police chief verifies the legitimacy of the prescription by contacting the physician. No information on the patient, the patient's caregiver or the physician is kept on file. -- The patient is issued a photo identification with name, photo, an expiration date based on the physician's recommendation, a serial number and signature. Caregivers do not get a card. Patients and caregivers keep track of their own written agreement confirming name of caregiver. -- Patients and/or caregivers are allowed up to eight ounces of dried marijuana or 10 flowering plants. -- Patient must be an Arcata resident. Recommending physicians can be from anywhere, as long as they are licensed doctors in good standing. SAN FRANCISCO: Countywide identification program is due to launch within next several months. Details are currently being hammered out by the county health department. The county is likely to charge a per-card fee of $20 to $25. The way it is expected to work: -- Patients and the patient's primary caregiver will go to the public health department with a written or verbal prescription for medical marijuana from a local physician. -- The public health officer will verify the legitimacy of the prescription by contacting the physician. Information on the patient's medical condition and the name of the physician will then be destroyed before the patient's and caregivers' serial numbers are forwarded to the district attorney. -- The patient and up to four or five designated caregivers will be issued photo identification cards with just a serial number. Cards will not contain patients' or caregivers' names. Cards will expire after two years. -- There will be no limit on the amount of marijuana, either dried or flowering, allowed for patients or their caregivers. Those rules will be made and enforced by the district attorney. -- Patients, caregivers and physicians must be residents of San Francisco County. Source: Dr. Hermina Palacio, special health adviser for the San Francisco County and City Department of Public Health; Mendocino County Sheriff Tony Craver, District Attorney Norm Vroman and public health officer Dr. Marvin Trotter; Arcata Police Chief Mel Brown. HAVE YOUR SAY: --Respond to this week's Topic at sunday or join the discussion at: http://www.sfgate.com/vent/sunday/ For other ways to reach us, see page 10. Laura Hamburg is a free-lance writer who lives in Ukiah. Published: Sunday, March 26, 2000 ©2000 San Francisco Chronicle ©2000 San Francisco Chronicle Page 1 CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives & Articles On Prop 215 :http://www.cannabisnews.com/images/medical.gifhttp://www.ussc.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/search?type=all&query=cannabisnews+prop+215
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Comment #2 posted by dddd on March 27, 2000 at 01:48:02 PT
Good,,,Bad..?
`Everyone knows what the initiative sought to accomplish -- sick people who have a recommendationform from a physician should be given their medicine,'' said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for stateAttorney General Bill Lockyer. ``Now from there it gets really, really murky. How do you define acaregiver? What is the appropriate quantity? What about distribution? How do you tell the good guysfrom the bad guys?'' he said. ``The initiative didn't answer any of those questions as it was written,which makes it difficult to enforce the law.'' One of the main problems here,is the;"How do you tell the good guys from the bad guys?". Who,or what,is a "bad guy"?If I want to smoke weed to relax at the end of a long day,I guess I would be one of these "bad guys",but if I go to a doctor,and he says I need to have marijuana to relax,because I have GAD;(Generalized Anxiety Disorder),,or;SAD,(Social Anxiety Disorder),then I am no longer a "bad guy". GAD, and SAD, are actual "conditions",that doctors can prescribe many different "legal",drugs for,,all of which are made by huge pharmaceutical firms,and are advertised on TV. I guess this is all obvious,,but I remain......DISGUSTED......dddd
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Comment #1 posted by Puritan on March 26, 2000 at 19:13:36 PT
Medical Marijuana
We know that cannabis is a great help. Those who are sick and try it know that. Doctors know this fact. Even the politicans, the Czar and all his minions, know this - only they do not care.  God help them, they will pay for their ruthlessness and for being so heartless.
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