cannabisnews.com: Medicinal Pot Users Honor Hallinan Medicinal Pot Users Honor Hallinan Posted by FoM on June 10, 2000 at 20:36:58 PT By Demian Bulwa of The Examiner Staff Source: San Francisco Examiner Medical marijuana users and distributors say they are moving up - all the way up to the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill, where they held a banquet to honor their paragon of law enforcement, San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan. A light herbal scent wafted up to the high ceiling of the historical Venetian Room Friday evening, a table of potato chips and other munchies was at the ready, and one guest wore a bud-emblazoned T-shirt under a black blazer. Then Hallinan, who has for better or worse championed medical marijuana with perhaps more vigor than any other elected official in the nation, was presented with an inaugural award that will heretofore bear his name. Members of the loose-knit San Francisco medical marijuana community, who pitched in to pay for the event, said it was fitting to party at the Fairmont. They said Hallinan, 62, was a major reason why users and distributors had moved closer to the mainstrea and out of the closets. "We're moving up in the world, huh?" said Jane Weirick, the director of St. Martin's Dispensary, which delivers marijuana doses to needy patients. "Terence showed that coming out with a stance favoring the use of medical cannabis doesn't make you unelectable. That was a big deal." Hallinan and medical pot advocates have developed a close bond, and Friday night was no exception. One speaker joked that the district attorney should run for U.S. attorney general, while Hallinan called the audience "heroes who have been in the trenches." In 1996, Hallinan was the only district attorney in California to endorse Proposition 215. The measure was approved by voters, allowing patients with a doctor's note to legally possess and grow marijuana for a variety of medical conditions. Recently, Hallinan favored a Board of Supervisors measure that goes into effect next month and allows qualified pot users to receive identification cards from city health workers. Hallinan sees medical marijuana as one battle in his larger fight to chip away at "the whole insane policy this country has on drugs right now." He has been alternately praised and slammed for diverting drug offenders away from the correctional system and into treatment. Friday, he said he was proud to lend his name to the award, which will be handed out in the future to leaders of what organizers called "common-sense drug policy." Hallinan was given $2,500, which he said he might donate to a San Francisco mentoring and diversion program. "These people are not criminals," Hallinan said, looking around at a group of about 75 people that included Dennis Peron, who wrote Proposition 215 and whose Cannabis Healing Center on Market Street was shut down two years ago. A San Francisco Superior Court Judge ruled it was a public nuisance, not a primary caregiver authorized to provide marijuana. Hallinan had fought to keep Peron's and other clubs open, and even floated the idea of having city health workers pass out pot. "Most district attorneys are still very anti-medical marijuana," he said Friday. "I want to say to them, 'Don't you listen to the people who elected you?' " Peron, now a pot farmer and distributor in Lake County, told the gathering: "This is the first-annual thank-you-for-not-busting-us Terence Hallinan award." Hallinan said he felt comfortable accepting an award and prize money despite the involvement of some sponsors who may have had criminal cases come before his office. Many of the same people were instrumental in helping him win re-election in a tight race last year. One of the banquet's primary sponsors, Richard Evans, was arrested in 1998 after San Francisco police raided his house and found his marijuana stash. Charges were filed and then dropped, and then refiled without Hallinan's knowledge, Evans said. After Hallinan learned the charges had been reinstated, Evans said, he dropped them again. "That was a legitimate medical marijuana situation," Hallinan said Friday. "The fact that he helped give me the award after what I did is fine." "Terence has been behind so many people, not just one person," said Evans, the director of the San Francisco Patients and Caregivers Health Center, who believes he was set up by police. ''But if it would have been handled by another district attorney, it could have come out differently." June 10, 2000 ©2000 San Francisco Examiner Page A1 Related Article & Web Site:Marijuana.orghttp://www.marijuana.org/ Pro-Marijuana Group Honoring S.F.'s Hallinan http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6001.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #6 posted by FoM on June 11, 2000 at 20:07:08 PT Definition of Pollyanna We aren't foolishly or blindly optimistic we are just full of hope! We see the light at the end of this long dark tunnel! That's what we are! Hopeful!Pol·ly·an·na (pl-n) n. A person regarded as being foolishly or blindly optimistic.http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=pollyanna [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by dddd on June 11, 2000 at 19:37:26 PT polly If that's what Pollyanna-ishness sounds like,then I like it.......dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on June 11, 2000 at 13:05:53 PT Thanks Again Kaptinemo! Hi Kaptinemo,You don't sound Pollyann-ish at all. I tend to see the world thru rose colored glasses myself. If we don't have hope then they've beaten us I believe. Without hope we all would just stop trying. The news has been so complicated and difficult to sort out with all the different organizations doing different things. I get lost in it all but I also learn too. That what we need to do is keep on learniing so we can present an intelligent argument when the other side starts beating us over the head! They sure know how to cause people pain. I don't want people to do drugs because the side effects can cause mood swings, violent behavior, addiction and on and on but I don't think someone who does drugs should go to jail for experimenting with a substance. Needless to say Cannabis isn't even in that category. Cannabis is a medicinal herb not a drug in my opinion.Thanks FoM! My What's New Page [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on June 11, 2000 at 12:26:38 PT: Bit by bit, step by step FoM, I hope that I don't sound off as being Pollyanna-ish when I say we are winning. But, just like water, we are eroding the DrugWarriors entire foundation. And that is largely due to the Internet. Which is why the ignorant knuckledraggers in Congress are salivating at the opportunity to try to destroy it with the Anti-Meth Bill. They stupidly think that if they can get it passed that they can kill off an annoying precursor to true near-instant democracy. Which, needless to say, end-runs around their special-interest controlled satrapies. Which is what they are really afraid of. This service does more than just keep us informed. It is a platform for action. People are able to share information, and even more important, *coordinate* their efforts (this is where the democratic part the pols hate comes in). In my estimation, more has been done in the last 5 years regarding cannabis re-legalization - largely thanks to the Internet - than has been done in the last 30.So, please, keep up the good work; we've come a long ways in the last 5 years. The times *are*, indeed, a-changing. And as it becomes more 'fashionable' with previously silent pundits, scholars, judges, and pols to publicly question the sanity of the DrugWar - and those who support it - we will make even greater gains. Hang in there, friends, the antis have run out of petrol, and they're running on fumes... their own. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on June 10, 2000 at 22:56:57 PT Thank You Doctor Dave When I found the article I thought how nice. How good! I hope this will happen throut the USA. It's the right thing to do! I will keep believing that more people will see! I hope everyday that some miracle will happen and the laws get changed. It could happen that easily. It probably won't but having a dream that is shared by so many others is good!Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Doctor Dave on June 10, 2000 at 22:35:49 PT I was there and it was an excellent tribute to the man who has promised that as long as he is DA, "no one will be prosecuted for the use, possession, or cultivation of MJ pursuant to a medical recommendation". He also said that "Across our country people are becoming aware that marijuana is an herb with amazing medical properties, and I am confident that it's not going to be that long before we see it available to anybody whose pain and suffering is alleviated by its use." I won't hold my breath, but if there's an elected official who can help make that a reality, it's Terrence Hallinan.Here is a D.A. who "gets it" when it comes to drug policy. The people of San Francisco (where Prop 215 received a whopping 78% YES vote) are fortunate to have a progressive, rational man who preserves rights instead of trampling on them.Doctor Dave"A nation that makes war against huge numbers of its own people can never truly be free." [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: