cannabisnews.com: Case Against Pot Clinic Staff is Thrown Out 





Case Against Pot Clinic Staff is Thrown Out 
Posted by FoM on September 06, 2000 at 09:57:51 PT
By J. Harry Jones, Union-Tribune Staff Writer 
Source: Union-Tribune
All charges against five people connected to a medicinal marijuana clinic shut down by police earlier this year in Hillcrest were dismissed yesterday by a judge who questioned why the case was even prosecuted.San Diego Superior Court Judge William Mudd said the ambiguity and confusion surrounding Proposition 215, in which state voters in 1996 legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes, left the five defendants in "an untenable position."
"They took all steps necessary to comply with the statute," Mudd said. But the law is so "botched up" that what is legal in other parts of the state is illegal here, he added.The five clinic workers were arrested in April, when the California Alternative Medicinal Center on Fourth Avenue was closed by police after three undercover purchases of marijuana totaling $400 earlier in the year.The purchases were made by a former volunteer at the clinic who was the caretaker for a man suffering from AIDS. The former volunteer agreed to cooperate with police after detectives unsuccessfully used an undercover sheriff's deputy.Clinic officials twice refused to sell to the deputy, first because she didn't have a doctor's recommendation and then because she presented a false recommendation from a nonexistent doctor.All the defendants were facing as much as six years in prison if they had been convicted of selling marijuana. All have been allowed to remain free without bail since their arrests. They are Carolyn Konow and her son Steven Rohr, who co-owned the for-profit clinic, and Amy Toosley, Daniel O'Neil and Howard Rogers, who worked there.Konow was a member of state Attorney General Bill Lockyer's task force that made recommendations to establish a medical-marijuana registry run by the state health department. The proposal died in the Assembly last fall."We were never doing anything wrong," Konow said outside court yesterday. The clinic had been in operation for more than two years and had about 1,000 clients, Konow said.After Mudd dismissed the charges, the defendants hugged each other and whooped with joy.Mudd said he couldn't understand why prosecutors hadn't tried to settle the case and clarify the law in the civil courts rather than charging the clinic workers with "irreducible felonies."Defense attorneys yesterday argued that at least four cities in Northern California, including San Francisco and San Jose, have enacted ordinances which, if adopted here, would make it completely legal for the clinic to operate.Several weeks ago, the San Diego City Council passed a resolution urging District Attorney Paul Pfingst to speed up the development of guidelines for police to follow in cases of the use of marijuana for medical purposes.David Hamlin, a spokesman for the clinic, said it is unclear if the clinic will try to reopen. Given the unclear state of the law, he said, "I think anyone will think long and hard before going back into the business."Prosecutor Julie Korsmeyer said the District Attorney's Office will appeal Mudd's decision within a few weeks. All of the documents and marijuana seized from the clinic and the homes of employees will remain with prosecutors until a final decision has been rendered."This needs to be clarified," Korsmeyer said of the law. "This is what happens when you have a poorly written proposition. Nobody knows what you can do and what you can't do."Published: September 6, 2000Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.Contact: letters uniontrib.comAddress: PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191Fax: (619) 293-1440Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/Related Article: Police Close Down Medical Marijuana Provider http://cannabisnews.com/news/5/thread5450.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by m.o.g. on September 06, 2000 at 21:35:14 PT
i like mudd...
this judge needs to spread his wisdom to every state in the union...we can win this war...
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