cannabisnews.com: Government To Appeal Court Ruling Government To Appeal Court Ruling Posted by FoM on July 25, 2000 at 19:12:45 PT By David Kravets, Associated Press Writer Source: Sacramento Bee The Justice Department will appeal a district court judge's ruling that clears the way for an Oakland club to distribute marijuana for medicinal purposes, according to court documents filed here Tuesday in federal court.Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Quinlivan submitted a notice to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week's decision by U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer, which could clear the way for a slew of new marijuana clubs. Quinlivan declined to comment Tuesday. Under Breyer's decision, the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative could provide marijuana to those who face imminent harm from serious medical conditions, and to those for whom legal alternatives to marijuana don't work or cause intolerable side effects.In his ruling, Breyer noted that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ordered him in September to consider an exemption for patients who face imminent harm and have no effective legal alternative to marijuana. The appellate panel found the government had failed to rebut evidence that marijuana is the only effective treatment for a large group of seriously ill patients.The victory for the Oakland club is the latest development in a years-old conflict between federal narcotics regulations and Proposition 215, which has been tangled up in court since California voters approved it in 1996.The California initiative allows seriously ill patients to grow and use marijuana for pain relief, with a doctor's recommendation, without being prosecuted under state law. But federal law says marijuana has no medical purpose and cannot be administered safely under medical supervision.Measures similar to California's initiative have passed in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.Let Us Hear From You:http://www.sacbee.com/bee/sacbeemail.htmlSan Francisco (AP) Published: July 25, 2000 Copyright © The Sacramento Bee Related Articles & Web Site:Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperativehttp://www.rxcbc.org/Pot For Painhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6477.shtmlWhat Hath Breyer Wrought By Richard Cowanhttp://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=259CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml CannabisNews Search - Oaklandhttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=oakland END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #8 posted by kaptinemo on July 26, 2000 at 08:59:34 PT: Rainbow, not to put too fine a point on it but the inertia that I talk about so much is starting to wind down.The politically-minded military officers who support the WoSD (just to get their tickets punched, mind you) are feeling the heat. They know the curtain's coming down on the DrugWar, and want to be able to 'get their's in' before the finale, so that they can say that they played a role in the game. Looks good on the ol' resume, don't you know? So, they and their bureaucratic brethren are in a terrible rush to 'deploy' their damnable bugs before some legislator gets up enough gumption (supplied through people like us screaming in his demi-conscious ear about the inherent dangers of ecotage) to call a halt to it. They feel that if they can do so, and 'prove' by cooking the books and twisting reports that they have 'succeeded', then they think that they can forestall the inevitable. (A point of interest: The military has been used like this before. Back during the mid-70's the CIA did the same thing in reporting Soviet military strengths as being 4 times what they were, and feeding those figures to the Republicans, who made the Russians look ten feet tall and able to kick our ass. This led to Ronnie Ray-gun being elected on the false belief that the Soviet Union was taking over the world and we had to rebuild our military to stop it. Which led to nice, big, fat paychecks for spooks and generals. And the coke-for-guns deals of Iran/Contra. The point being, they'll say whatever lie they feel they can get away with to keep the ol' gravy train from derailing. Hence the sudden interventionist hysteria about Marxist dope growers in Colombia threatening our children.)But like I said, things are winding down. Judge Breyer's ruling is going to make the Feds look very silly; what can they say, when the results of the Abrams study, *a controlled scientific study which had the blessing of the US government courtesy of NIDA*, has been released internationally - and shot down all of their precious talking points. They could ignore the IoM report only because it was a mere compendium of anecdotal information not proven through scientific study. The Abrams Report WAS a scientific study. And it is very embarrassing, indeed. What can the antis do? Try to besmirch Abrams's reputation as a scientist? He's followed the most stringent of guidelines ever proposed by any government agency, and he *still* came up with results the antis have feared for years. They have few places to run to now, save resort to character assassination a la their chihuahua dogs like Joyce Nalepka. And few thinking people take such mouthpieces seriously.Oh, yes, the antis are in what my Brit friends used to call a 'cleft stick'. And I wish you could see my smile. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Rainbow on July 26, 2000 at 07:00:24 PT All well and good, but I agree with you all but am very concerned about the continued action of our pols on the military and ecological fronts.They are as suspected ignoring the facts - Abrams, Breyer, etc. and continuing with the terror tactics. The dogs are still doing as their masters say and causing terror, and they will get off and not be held responsible (eg Heitt).McCzar apparently got away with murder in Iraq, King George is getting away with murder in California. The lawsuits will come but the guilty will fade away in their mansions on the coast. For after all it is the government that did it and we are the government - right? So we will pay.Maybe our efforts need to be directed somehow at the military and top echelons of the gov't now.If the organisms our short-sighted (knee-jerk) government wants to foust on the environment are as dangerous as we suspect then it will not matter if we win the MMJ battle.PeaceRainbow [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by dddd on July 26, 2000 at 06:29:56 PT not again Kap,,I'm gettin' tired of having to hassle with complimenting you,so try to keep it down. You have done an exquisite job of disassembling this situation. It is indeed true,that the legal ramifications have the ones who know,deeply chagrined,and those who think they know,are left to pretend they think they are hep...kinda like a dog that's been left in the yard,and keeps barking because he thought it was the thing to do if he thought he heard something,and his master comes home to feed him,and say,"there's someone still out there boy,keep barking",,,,Weird analogy,,I know,,,,,,too bad those poor fellows aren't actually dogs.Then I wouldn't blame them............................dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on July 26, 2000 at 05:55:35 PT: The lawsuit factor Dr. Ganj, I can't claim to have the answer, but as to what *might* happen to all those cannabis POW's (CPOW's), I'd like to hazard a guess:After the first successful appeal of a CPOW; the legal system will be inundated with a flood of similar appeals. Like the entire anti apparatus, it will use as much chicanery as possible to delay the release of all those non-violent users who've been incarcerated. The stink from that however, will be nothing compared to what comes next.With the only (legally excused) basis for cannabis prohibition - the supposed deleterious effects of cannabis on the body - declared null-and-void, by the Abrams Report, every person whose life has been ruined by the antis will want restitution. And this is the *real* reason behind their foot-dragging, obfuscation and outright lying: to stall the inevitable avalanche of wrongful arrest and incarceration suits, until they can get a ruling that exempts from paying such restitution. Too many seized goods have already been auctioned, too many records destroyed (if they were ever kept to begin with) and too many have had their jobs lost, careers destroyed, families torn apart, etc. to ever 'forgive and forget'. Not to mention they want to avoid the legal penalties involved in the many wrongful deaths caused by their DrugWar, such as Peter McWilliam's. The DoJ - as well as the entire Federal, State, and local Law Enforcement appartaus, is looking at the very real prospect of being bankrupted. The more intelligent of the antis have known all along what could happen. The rank and file, however, remain totally clueless, and are looking up, dog-like, to their superiors for the next move. In absence of new orders, they'll continue to harrass the MMJ groups. Until a lawsuit smacks them on the snout and they back off. This is the real reason behind Federal bullying of the MMJ movement; they know right now that the only thing that is holding a very hungry horde of legal wolves from their door is sheer force of harrassing police actions on the street level and Federal chicanery higher up. If the top falters, the cops will back off. And this long nightmare wll be over. But we still have a hard road to walk, yet. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by dddd on July 26, 2000 at 04:22:43 PT thanx Thank you Dr. Ganj,,for the positive vibration,and enlightening information.JAH shine on youSincerely.......dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Dr. Ganj on July 26, 2000 at 00:43:38 PT DOJ's Appeal It'll be at least 2 years before the Supreme Court will affirm, or decide to reverse the 9th circuit's position allowing some patients to obtain medical marijuana. Also, they could (the Supreme Court) not even review the DOJ's appeal, and the previous 9th circuit's modification request to judge Breyer's ruling would stand. What this means now, and I must emphasize here, for the next two years, the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative (OCBC) will be able to legally distribute medical marijuana to patients that meet the standards set forth by the modification.(See the link below for a masterful explanation of all this by Dick Cowan of MarijuanaNews.com)In the area of medical marijuana I might add, two years is a very long time, in which many important things are going to occur. Other states are going to follow the path of either voting for medical marijuana, or voting for outright decriminalization-as are the states of Alaska and Oregon this November. As more states embrace having legal medical marijuana, it will be that much more difficult for the Supreme Court to deny possibly tens of thousands of ill people this herbal medicine. By ruling against the OCBC in 2 years, the Supreme Court would be inviting civil unrest at their steps.I will wager they let the 9th circuit's modification stand, and this will open the door to having marijuana rescheduled to a realistic III category placement. The fight to keep this plant illegal since 1937 will finally be over. In years to come, when we look back on the prohibition on marijuana, and we ask what was the turning point that finally made it legal, we'll have to remember two major events- one, California's Proposition 215 in 1996, and the 9th circuit's modification ruling in July, of 2000.One more thing this 9th circuit modification does-it opens up very realistic appeal hopes to many federal prisoners incarcerated for marijuana offenses. Two people I can think that this directly affects are Todd McCormick, and B.E. Smith, both of whom are currently in federal prison for marijuana charges. Both were denied a medical necessity defense, and the ability to even mention "medical marijuana" at their respective trials-which effectively ended their hopes of a solid defense, and a fair trial.Just because we'll see legal cannabis in the next few years, doesn't mean all the people in jail for marijuana charges will be freed. We need to fight for them as well.I've often wondered about the bootleggers in the 1920's who were in jail for running a still, or selling moonshine. Were they released from jail after article XXI was ratified in 1933? (This of course is the repeal of the 18th amendment-which made alcohol illegal back in 1920) Or, did they have to complete their prison terms? I mention this because there are so many people right now in U.S. prisons for marijuana offenses, that once the legal sanctions are lifted, I feel they should be summarily released. Let's hope the right thing happens to make up for so much wrong, to so many. Dr. Ganj http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=259 [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by dddd on July 25, 2000 at 23:53:38 PT Of course It's no surprize that the feds are gonna try to reverse this,,but it still suprizes me to think of how they can not explain who put them up to this,or why they are doing it."Quinlivan declined to comment Tuesday. ".....I wonder why?,,or if he will comment....dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by MikeEEEEE on July 25, 2000 at 19:31:26 PT Yawn No big surprise here, the government set on destroying sick and dying people. Who's really sick, I wonder. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: