|
Score 1 for state rights... Government Issues Medical Marijuana Guidelines
|
View this Thread in Original format
| R!CH |
Government Issues Medical Marijuana Guidelines
October 19, 2009
Patients prescribed marijuana for medical purposes and their licensed suppliers "will not be a priority" of federal prosecutors in states that have legalized the practice, the Justice Department said Monday.
The guidance from the department came in the form of a three-page memo that directed federal agents to take a hands-off approach to cases in which no state laws are broken.
Prosecutors "should not focus federal resources in your states on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana," the memo said.
The memo was sent Monday to federal prosecutors in 14 states that allow at least limited use of medically sanctioned marijuana and to top officials at the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/...395&sc=fb&cc=fp
also, in local news.... did you know it is the policy of sfo and oak airports that you can bring up to 8 ounces of weed with you on your flight? :cool:
SFO, Oakland Travelers Can Carry Medical Pot
Oct 17, 2009 12:03 am US/Pacific
Linda Yee, Reporting.
OAKLAND (CBS 5) ―
Air travelers are not allowed to bring most liquids, along with weapons and explosives past the security checkpoint. But you can bring medical marijuana, if you're traveling out of two Bay Area airports. It's not a case of security looking the other way, it's official airport policy.
Medical marijuana patients boarding flights out of Oakland and San Francisco International airports are allowed to take up to 8 ounces of pot along, but at their own risk.
http://cbs5.com/local/medical.marij....2.1254207.html |
|
|
| mattW |
 |
|
|
| 72hrpartyanimal |
| mental note... when flying out of LAX or Burbank, smoke |
|
|
| R!CH |
| quote: | Originally posted by 72hrpartyanimal
mental note... when flying out of LAX or Burbank, smoke |
the same day obama's attorney general announces this, la's top prosecutor announces this:
LA's top prosecutor vows to target pot shops
(10-19) 18:59 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Clay Tepel knew there were risks to setting up a medical marijuana shop: it could lose money, be robbed or be raided by authorities.
Still, he wasn't expecting the phone call one August day when a voice said the police were outside and he needed to open up or they would bust down the door. His first thought, that it was a joke, turned to terror when he opened the door.
Heavily armed officers in helmets, bulletproof vests and, oddly enough, Bermuda shorts stormed his store, handcuffed him, disabled security cameras and seized his drugs before taking him to jail. When he asked why his shop was invaded, an officer responded, "We're closing them all down."
Those words could prove prescient after Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said last week he wants to shutter clinics that sell pot for profit. Cooley's plan is the latest salvo in a prolonged conflict in California over whether medical marijuana is truly having its intended effect or is being abused by the larger population.
Until recently, raids on clinics typically led to federal prosecutions, but Cooley's remarks and similar ones from Attorney General Jerry Brown signal a new approach to clear the haze left by Proposition 215, the 1996 state ballot measure that allowed sick people with referrals from doctors and an identification card to smoke pot.
"Everybody is scared," said Tepel, who has spoken with other pot store operators. "Why are voters' rights being stepped all over? This kind of blind justice has to stop."
The crackdown is a crushing blow for dispensary owners who were relieved in March when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said federal agents would only go after marijuana distributors who violate both federal and state laws.
A new policy memo issued Monday by the Justice Department told prosecutors that pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in states that allow medical marijuana. The guidelines do, however, make it clear that federal agents will go after people whose distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes.
The comments Holder made earlier this year appear to have emboldened entrepreneurs as marijuana shops cropped up across California. In Los Angeles alone, there are an estimated 800 dispensaries, more than any other city in the nation. In 2005, there were only four, authorities said.
Cooley contends a vast majority of several hundred outlets his office investigated aren't following state law. Initially, the law allowed authorized marijuana users to grow their own plants, but lawmakers revised the law in 2003 to allow collectives to provide pot grown by members.
Cooley said he would target stores who are profiting and selling to people who don't qualify for medicinal marijuana.
"All those who are operating illegally, our advice to them is to shut down voluntarily and they won't be subject to prosecution," Cooley told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
At the same time, advocates are gathering signatures to get as many as three pot-legalization measures on next year's ballot in California. One poll shows voters would support legalizing marijuana outright.
By the government's count, 14 states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Some medical marijuana advocates say Maryland shouldn't be included in that group, because the law there only allows for reduced penalties for medical marijuana usage.
Cooley said his office has been assessing the rush of marijuana dispensaries for the past two years and has provided training for his staff over the past several months in anticipation of filing cases.
"Holder's statement probably created the impression that there wasn't going to be any federal investigation or prosecution of these entities," Cooley said. "There has to be some clarification."
Some legal observers believe the first case Cooley files since his announcement will show how egregious the illegal behavior has become among medical marijuana outlets.
"He's going to find a dispensary that is way over the line," said Rory Little, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law.
Among the candidates are Jeffrey Joseph, who runs Organica and was arrested in August but has yet to be charged. Authorities recovered 452 marijuana plants, more than 100 pounds of hashish and more than $100,000 in cash from his home and dispensaries in Marina del Rey and Culver City.
Defense attorney William Kroger said authorities fail to account for expenses and other costs dispensary owners incur and the proliferation of new rivals has hurt business.
"Most of my clients aren't making a lot of money," said Kroger, who represents about a dozen other owners. "I'd like to see Cooley sit down with us and keep shops open for those who need it and thin out the herd so there aren't so many of them."
James Shaw of the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients, an advocacy group for users, said his group plans to file a lawsuit against the city and county of Los Angeles to prohibit prosecution of legal organizations.
While the definition of a compliant dispensary is open to interpretation, Shaw said it's up to local municipalities to determine what matches up best with state law.
"Wherever there are regulations, there is less need for law enforcement intervention," Shaw said.
Nowhere is the topic more muddled than in Los Angeles, where city officials say plenty of people are getting high for the wrong reasons.
While the city has had a moratorium prohibiting new medical marijuana facilities for two years, officials have been unable to pass an ordinance governing the dispensaries. More than 180 dispensaries qualified to remain open under the moratorium, but many others took advantage of a loophole known as a "hardship exemption" that allowed them to open while awaiting city approval.
On Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant temporarily barred city officials from enforcing the moratorium, saying the City Council failed to follow state law when it extended an initial ban.
Chaflant's ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by Green Oasis, a medical marijuana collective that sued the city last month. The injunction only applies to Green Oasis but it could inspire other dispensaries to follow suit.
Tepel, a married father of four, agrees some pot clinics abuse the system but he maintains he had all the proper paperwork and followed the rules. If police had thoroughly investigated, they would have found most of his customers were either older or female, as opposed to younger men, and many grew their own marijuana and sold the drug to Tepel as allowed by the state.
After investing tens of thousands of dollars, Tepel argued it will take years to recoup his investment.
Tepel believes his shop in a strip mall with tinted black windows was targeted because it was on a busy street and not "in the hood or in a back alley."
"We're not tatted-up drug dealers. This is a family run operation," said Tepel, who pleaded not guilty Monday to one count of felony possession of marijuana with the intent to sell. "I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my future, my family's future. We didn't deserve this."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...L#ixzz0USi49LQC
laaame. |
|
|
| DaveT |
Well, if your dispensary is setup and run in accordance with state law (basically as a co-op), you won't have any issues.
They are only after dispensaries breaking state law in how it's run. |
|
|
| R!CH |
dave, stop being an apologist for a prosecutor with a clear agenda. it's pretty hypocritical of you considering the circumstances.
i tend to believe this testimony:
Tepel, a married father of four, agrees some pot clinics abuse the system but he maintains he had all the proper paperwork and followed the rules. If police had thoroughly investigated, they would have found most of his customers were either older or female, as opposed to younger men, and many grew their own marijuana and sold the drug to Tepel as allowed by the state.
After investing tens of thousands of dollars, Tepel argued it will take years to recoup his investment.
Tepel believes his shop in a strip mall with tinted black windows was targeted because it was on a busy street and not "in the hood or in a back alley."
"We're not tatted-up drug dealers. This is a family run operation," said Tepel, who pleaded not guilty Monday to one count of felony possession of marijuana with the intent to sell. "I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my future, my family's future. We didn't deserve this."
...over that of a political movement that tried to enforce a moratorium on all dispensaries in la county without following proper legal procedure.
and if you need a clearer perspective on the entire issue of prohibition in the context of its role in society, try watching that documentary once. you might learn of a motive or two behind mr. cooley's actions.
i just finished watching and now i'm going to bed. |
|
|
| R!CH |
Court tells Feds to return pot club's money
(10-20) 13:55 PDT LOS ANGELES --
A Los Angeles medical marijuana clinic is entitled to recover more than $186,000 that was seized in an illegal police search and then claimed by the federal government, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday. _
Although federal agents can investigate marijuana suppliers for violating federal drug laws, the government should not be allowed to "profit from illegal activity by law enforcement," said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. _
The ruling came a day after President Obama's Justice Department issued guidelines advising federal prosecutors not to target patients and clinics that are complying with laws in California and other states that allow the medical use of marijuana. _
The case dates from March 2005, when a Los Angeles police sergeant went to the United Medical Caregivers Clinic, talked with its chief executive about its operations and saw patients buying marijuana with recommendations from their doctors. _
The sergeant contacted his police station, which obtained a search warrant without telling the judge that the clinic was a medical marijuana dispensary, the court said. _
No one was charged with a crime, but police kept the $186,400 they found in the clinic's cash register and safe. When the clinic went to court to reclaim the money, the federal government filed its own claim, saying the cash was the proceeds of activity that violated federal law. _
Despite finding the search illegal, U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson ordered the cash forfeited to the government. Wilson said U.S. authorities had independent evidence that the money came from drug sales - a declaration by the clinic's chief executive, who was seeking the money's return by arguing that the marijuana distribution complied with California law. _
But the appeals court said the evidence wasn't independent and was a byproduct of wrongdoing by the Los Angeles police, who "misled a state judge into perceiving (the clinic's) conduct as criminal." _
Even worse, said Judge Richard Clifton in the 3-0 ruling, was the prospect that the federal government would have turned over most of the forfeited funds to the police. _
"Police were being paid (a percentage of the funds) to lie to a Superior Court judge" who issued the search warrant, Paul Gabbert, the clinic's lawyer, said Tuesday. _
The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment. _
E-mail Bob Egelko at [email protected] . _
there's your motive right there! |
|
|
| DaveT |
where did I apologize for anyone?
I simply said if they clinic is operating illegally...then it's operating illegally and I personally don't see a problem with them going in and shutting it down.
Now if they got into one that ends up not being illegal or anything, of course that's screwed up.
If they target ones they know are running in accordance to state law, then that's messed up.
That's all I'm saying.
sheesh. |
|
|
| 72hrpartyanimal |
| my buddy just got rolled on with 12grams a couple of weeks ago. since then he's gotten the card. has a court date in a couple of days. what are his chances of getting off? |
|
|
| R!CH |
getting off? i guess that all depends on the situation and the judge. i didn't even know cops busted people in ca just for having 12 grams, unless he was driving unsafely or being a dick to the cop.
i never saw the point in getting a cannabis card because store products are overpriced, i would never buy them, and as far as legality goes, i just focus on not getting caught to begin with, which has never been a problem for me.
however once i was caught with an ounce through no fault of my own. my stupid ass friend tagged a building next to the endup and ran into my car after the bouncer called the cops on him. he didn't mention cops were looking for him so i was blindsided when 5 of them surrounded my car. they saw blue paint on his hands so they searched my car for paint cans and found a pom jar full of reefer. i leveled with the shift captain and he told me i could either dump all the bud out on the ground in front of him or he could take it from me. i dumped it out and stepped on it (so tragic) and he let me keep a fresh packed bowl for the road. frankly i was upset he made me do that, but at the time i was just glad he didn't find anything else.
so that being my one experience with mj and the law, i couldn't tell you what a judge will do. a court date over 12 grams sounds like he messed up somewhere else along the line though. either he was in a school zone, stoned in the driver's seat, had a scale or didn't vibe with the unis... |
|
|
|
|
