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Suetaz

Rx for medical marijuana

Press-Telegram | Opinion | June 14, 2004

It's time for Long Beach to set guidelines.

Earlier this year a Long Beach deputy city attorney told a citizens' advisory commission on public safety that it shouldn't become involved in medical marijuana issues because the City Council had no business in that area. Actually, there are few policy issues more in need of council leadership than medical marijuana.

Seven years have passed since the majority of California voters approved the use of marijuana for medical reasons, yet many sick patients still live in fear of arrest and prosecution. Their fears are well justified. Because Long Beach's local policies have not been revised to match the state laws, sick people legally using marijuana are considered to be criminals. They're not.

Tonight the City Council has an opportunity to provide Long Beach, at last, with a resolution to conflicting medical marijuana laws. The council will be asked to form a task force to study ways in which Long Beach can regulate the legal use of medical marijuana under Proposition 215, the state law. (The task force recommendation was brought forward by the Public Safety Commission, which, to its credit, didn't listen to the deputy city attorney's initial advice.)

The task force idea isn't new or unusual. It has already been implemented by several large cities in California, which have sought to clarify local policy and resolve the conflicts brought up by Prop 215. San Diego, for example, has issued Prop 215 guidelines that include carefully regulated identification cards for patients, as well as official parameters on possession and cultivation. Long Beach can, and should, do the same.

The arrests and citations of local medical marijuana patients in recent years have been pointless, subjective and cruel. In some cases they have amounted to an incredible waste of court resources, police time and taxpayer money.

Judges have dismissed all but one of the four Long Beach medical marijuana cases that have gone to trial. The other was overturned on appeal. One particularly troubling case involved a septuagenarian veteran with chronic hip pain who was arrested for growing some immature plants with a doctor's recommendation. The man was forced to pay attorneys' fees in more than two dozen court appearances while the case was tried, refiled and dismissed three times.

The public doesn't want sick people arrested for using medical marijuana. A 2004 Field Poll found that 74 percent of Californians favor total legal protection for patients, a substantial increase from the already high 65 percent of voters who approved Prop 215. Judges and juries are dismissing or rejecting nearly all of the medical marijuana cases that come before them. Police departments don't need to waste their time going after medical marijuana patients, and individual officers in the field shouldn't have to decide which conflicting law to uphold.

Maintaining the status quo is unacceptable, as lawful patients are subjected to humiliating and stressful arrests, and overtaxed public safety and judicial systems are further burdened.

The Long Beach City Council can fix that by creating a medical marijuana task force, staffing it with reputable representatives from the medical, public policy and public safety fields, and changing Long Beach's medical marijuana policies so they conform to state law.

It is past time for Long Beach to find a reasonable solution to contradictory and inconsistent medical marijuana laws.

[Suetaznote: A well written opinion column, by someone. There was no name with the column. The last sentence says it all. Well past time. The laws don't make any sense and too many people are suffering because of these inconsistencies and contradictions. The Long Beach City Council needs to do the right thing here by their citizens and do what they can to provide some clarity in the laws.]

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Suetaz

Medical pot smokers sway City Council

Patients say policy has them arrested before questioning.

Jason Gewirtz | Staff writer | Press-Telegram

LONG BEACH — Hearing impassioned pleas from medical marijuana patients and advocates, the City Council on Tuesday asked the Police Department to change a policy that essentially requires officers who see marijuana to arrest patients first and ask questions later.
The council asked the police to return by Sept. 14 with a proposed new policy to eliminate what several residents said was unfair and inhumane treatment of medical marijuana patients.

The city's police policy calls for officers who come across someone with marijuana to seize any evidence and arrest or cite the person as appropriate. Medical marijuana patients can then prove their cases in court.

Proposition 215, passed by voters in 1996, makes it legal for patients to possess or cultivate marijuana for medical use.

"We have not been following the law," said Councilman Dan Baker, who called for the review with Councilman Val Lerch.

Since 2000, five medical marijuana patients have been arrested in Long Beach.

Baker and Lerch called for the review after the council's Public Safety Advisory Commission asked the council to get involved. The advisory board heard months of testimony from residents who said the police policy was at odds with the state law.

Council members heard emotional testimony from residents, including several who have been arrested for possession or cultivation.

David Zink, the first Long Beach medical marijuana patient to be arrested after Prop 215 took effect, said he was not satisfied with the time frame for the new review. Zink's case for possession and cultivation was eventually dismissed. But, he said, he spent about $15,000 in legal fees, he said.

"I feel like this is another delay," he said. "They've had eight years to come up with a reasonable policy."

Michael Barbee, who helped the San Diego City Council recently change that city's similar police policy, said Long Beach needed to follow suit. After studying the issue, San Diego settled on a policy to require identification cards for residents taking marijuana for medical purposes.

"We have police officers making medical decisions," Barbee said of Long Beach's policy.

But police officials said that changing the policy isn't as easy as it might appear.

Deputy Chief Robert Luna said the department would need to consult with the Los Angeles district attorney's office as well as the Long Beach city attorney and prosecutor to account for any liability a policy change could bring.

In addition, he said, marijuana use has been the cause of property crimes, violent crime and gang activity, making it difficult for officers to differentiate between who has the right to use marijuana legally. Although there have been five arrests for medical marijuana since 2000, he said, there have been about 5,000 other marijuana-related arrests over the same period.

"The police officer on the street is dealing with a lot of serious issues," he said.

The request for a new policy passed on an 8-0 vote with Lerch abstaining.

Lerch, whose wife suffers from multiple sclerosis, said he was too emotionally attached to the issue to vote with an open mind.

"My wife will probably not use marijuana," he said. "But damn it, she should have the right to do so."

Kannibal

"My wife will probably not use marijuana," he said. "But damn it, she should have the right to do so."


I of course agree with that sentiment 100%.I would hope too, that his wife may at least try cannabis to see if it helps her.Like the old saying goes 'the proof of the pudding is in the tasting' If it helps her I cannot see why she would not use it other than the fear of being stigmatized as a pothead or something by intolerant draconian minds.

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Keep the wall of reality and fantasy high enough not to fall over but low enough to see the other side.