cannabisnews.com: Help From My Friends





Help From My Friends
Posted by FoM on May 21, 2001 at 17:52:43 PT
By Andrew Curry 
Source: U.S. News 
A neat row of bright-green seedlings basks in the sunlight on Patrick's window sill. Together with the 20 full-grown plants sitting in plastic kiddie pools under fluorescent lights in his basement, these plants supply the stout, white-bearded Californian and a handful of other locals with medicine. And though part of his tiny marijuana crop is clearly visible from the driveway, he's unconcerned about the law. "I feel totally legal," he says. "I have searched my soul and feel like finally we got the law changed to a level where we can comply." 
Others disagree. In a unanimous decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the idea that the medical need for marijuana can be used as a defense in federal courts. Although it's a fairly narrow ruling–very few small-time growers or users ever end up in federal court–it could effectively end open, large-scale distribution of medical marijuana. But here in rural Mendocino County, 100 miles north of San Francisco, the ruling is more of an inconvenience than anything else. In response to California's Proposition 215, which decriminalized marijuana for medical use in 1996, county law enforcement officials have set up a registration program for patients and their growers. And last year local Mendocino voters approved Measure G, a symbolic call to legalize "personal medical or recreational use."It's no surprise that this would happen here. Mendocino is at the southern tip of California's famed "Emerald Triangle," where for decades marijuana cultivation has been a cottage industry in the area's rugged gullies and canyons. But lately even local politicians and police seem to have made their peace with the drug. "We deal with it fine," says Mendocino District Attorney Norm Vroman. "It's the rest of the country that's all screwed up."While Mendocino is more progressive on this issue than most regions, it's not alone. Eight states now have laws making marijuana legally available for people using it to curb disease-related nausea, pain, or muscle spasms and to increase appetite. More state ballot initiatives are on their way, and Canada plans to implement medical-use laws this summer.But federal law remains unchanged since the Controlled Substances Act of 1970–the law addressed by the Supreme Court–classified marijuana as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has "no currently accepted medical use" and "a high potential for abuse." That's a stricter classification than even cocaine and methamphetamine, yet there is great resistance to easing the sanctions. "We already have alcohol and tobacco, two pretty bad legal drugs," says Robert Maginnis of the Family Research Council. "If we go down the path of legalizing marijuana, drug use will go into orbit. Medical marijuana is just about buying sympathy and eroding the public stance on changing the laws." As a result of the fear of appearing soft on drugs, many states, even those with medical marijuana laws, still maintain harsh potential penalties for offenders. The result is that state and local law enforcement is increasingly torn between the punitive federal position and the increasingly progressive will of the community. Since only about 1 in 100 marijuana arrests is made by federal agents, local authorities are playing a larger and larger part in shaping the actual patterns of marijuana use in the country. These circumstances result in large part from the AIDS crisis in San Francisco a decade ago. Recalls Dennis Peron, a longtime activist who opened a cannabis club in 1991: "That 'munchies' thing you always used to laugh about isn't a joke when an AIDS patient is eating again after throwing up for two days." Public sympathy for such suffering persuaded most city officials to look the other way, and soon San Franciscans made it official, with 80 percent voting for a proposition urging the city not to penalize doctors or patients using or prescribing marijuana. As public support for medical use grew, Peron and his allies drafted California's Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. The vaguely worded proposition guarantees Californians the right to use marijuana for medical reasons if a physician recommends it; it lists several diseases, including AIDS, but adds "any other illness for which marijuana provides relief." The proposition passed easily in 1996, with 56 percent of voters supporting it. Prop. 215 made it easier for California legislators, prosecutors, and sheriffs to look the other way. "Prosecutors don't want to prosecute these people. It's not in their interest to take someone who's deathly ill and put them in a jail cell," says National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law's Allen St. Pierre. Indeed, since Prop. 215, a string of California juries have acquitted growers and users. One district attorney is even facing a recall because citizens feel she has prosecuted marijuana offenders too vigorously.Lives vs. laws. The emotional case for medical use is gripping. When San Franciscan Clifford Braun was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 23 years ago, his doctor recommended he smoke marijuana to treat the condition's painful muscle spasms. Braun smokes three or four joints a day, which he says leaves him feeling better than the high doses of Valium and other tranquilizers he would otherwise have to use: "This isn't drug abuse. It's medicine."The medical evidence is more ambiguous (see RX Munchies). Indeed, opponents of medical marijuana laws accuse proponents of hiding behind sick people in an effort to get marijuana legalized for everyone. Advocates deny this, though many do support legalization. "We don't think sick people or healthy people should be put in prison for smoking marijuana," says Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project. "We focus on sick people because they need it now."The murky legal situation puts the police in a bind, too. Mendocino County Sheriff Tony Craver's solution has been to work with county health officials to register medical marijuana users–and growers like Patrick who provide them with pot. But he says this is mainly a convenience, providing patients with official ID in case they are stopped. And so, in this case at least, few in Mendocino are listening to the Supreme Court's opinion. "Very frankly, I'm hard pressed to prosecute anybody for any amount of marijuana," says Vroman. "If the federal government wants to come up here and arrest people, I suppose they can. . . . Luckily, I don't take direction from the federal government. I take direction from the local voters." Note: The high court's marijuana ruling won't play in Mendocino.Source: U.S. News & World ReportAuthor: Andrew Curry Published: May 28, 2001Copyright: 2001 U.S. News & World Report Inc.Website: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/home.htmContact: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/usinfo/infomain.htmRelated Articles & Web Sites:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Marijuana.orghttp://www.marijuana.org/County of Mendocino Web Sitehttp://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/index.htmlOCBC Versus The U.S. Government News http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/mj.htmClubs May Shift Focus To Home Cultivation http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9730.shtmlPatton of Pot - 60 Minutes IIhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8656.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by freedom fighter on May 21, 2001 at 22:08:53 PT
A little help from my friends
I get by with a little help from my friends..Friends that do not peek in my bedroom window..Friends that do not break my door at midnight..I get by with a little help from my friends..Friends that bring me a doobie and a sixpak of buds..Just a little help from my friends....Love and Peace\/ff
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