cannabisnews.com: Let Smoke Clear for Interpretation of Prop 215





Let Smoke Clear for Interpretation of Prop 215
Posted by FoM on March 20, 2001 at 21:45:08 PT
Editorial Opinion
Source: Record Searchlight
Finally, more than four years after voters approved the Compassionate Use Act, there's hope of defining the medical use of marijuana in California. Maybe.It couldn't come none too soon. Proposition 215 was intended to allow sick people use marijuana to ease their illnesses, but the measure as written and passed is so vague that the people who are supposed to benefit are more likely to end up in handcuffs and in court. Some comfort.
The law is so confusing that we have law enforcement and prosecutors handling things differently from county to county and making their own rules of enforcement. This must stop. The state Supreme Court last week agreed to consider establishing standards for the use of medical pot. And at the Capitol last month, Sen. John Vasconcellos revived legislation that would do two things: Specify how many plants a patient would be permitted to grow for personal use and set up a statewide system for the registration of qualified users.To say these measures are long overdue is an understatement. Proposition 215 was the product of California's maddening initiative process, which allows measures to go on the ballot that lack precise language for their implementation.Letting law enforcement authorities interpret the proposition as they see fit has proved disastrous in Shasta County. The treatment of medical marijuana users by the Sheriff's Department and district attorney's office has bordered on harassment. Defendants have responded by filing suits against the county alleging abuse and unwarranted searches.It's gotten to the point where Shasta County law enforcement and the district attorney's office — and all law enforcement — need to step back and wait for clarification from the courts and Legislature. The Sheriff's Department and district attorney's office are wasting a lot of their time and resources plus the time of people who derive medical benefits from marijuana. Certainly there are higher priorities for arrests and prosecution. Let's get this clarified and stand down on the enforcement until such clarification comes. Source: Redding Record Searchlight (CA)Published: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 Copyright: 2001 Redding Record Searchlight - E.W. Scripps Address: PO Box 492397, Redding, CA 96049-2397 Contact: letters redding.com Website: http://www.redding.com/ Related Articles:Medical Marijuana Use Tangles Courts http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9068.shtmlMarijuana Suit Claims Search Abuse http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9046.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on March 21, 2001 at 04:36:01 PT:
I don't want to seem contrary
But it seems like nearly everyone involved in this 'process' is missing the point.The point being that Prop215 set no personal limits as to how much may be grown or stored.Letting law enforcement authorities interpret the proposition as they see fit has proved disastrous in Shasta County. The treatment of medical marijuana users by the Sheriff's Department and district attorney's office has bordered on harassment. Defendants have responded by filing suits against the county alleging abuse and unwarranted searches.It is not the place of cops to 'interpret the law', only to enforce it. (And they have been doing a piss-poor job of that as it is.) Only judges may do that, and they are on the whole, quite a bit leery about doing so.The author of this article seems to miss a very important point; namely, that those who crafted this bill were not being intentionally sloppy. Far from it.What is the main point of the anti's argument against cannabis? That it's a (dramatic organ music) Dangerous Drug. (Yeah, right. Uh-hunh.) Like a pistol, you don't dare leave it laying around, for fear of The Chil-drun getting their patty paws on it. Everything the antis say and do concerning cannabis revolves around this inane proposition.The farmers of Prop215 knew that, to combat this bit of now-institutionalized brainwashing, they had to force recognition on the public's part that this patently false. The fact (now proven by Dr. Abrams in his report to the 13th annual AIDS conference in Durban last year) that cannabis poses no harm to people with seriously compromised immune systems - and by derivation, can cause none in healthy people - gives the lie to the anti sheep-bleat.IMHO The framers of Prop215 were trying to show exactly how stupid and foolish it is to try to legislate control of MMJ, and therefore MJ, use.By forcing the lawmakers, the police, the judges and the prosecutors to come to terms with the idea that MMJ is here to stay (no, that was not intentional, it just came out that way) and cannot be wished away, they are gradually becoming acclimated to it. By rubbing their noses in this absurd 'How -many-angels-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin' argument regarding amounts, it brings into sharp focus the sheer stupidity of it all. A rational person might be inclined to throw his hands in the air and say, "Enough, dammit! Leave the sick people be. We've got more important things to worry about than this."And there are always more rational people than there are DrugWarriors. 
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