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Lit_Match

State, Federal Law Conflict Creates Marijuana Haze
08-27-07|Bakersfield Californian|Editorial

It's hard to blame the Kern County Board of Supervisors for its decision last week to take no action on the conundrum posed by conflicting laws related to medical marijuana dispensaries. Almost any action the supervisors might have taken would've run afoul of someone or something.

Supervisors should have taken this step, though: Demand that our state and federal elected officials provide some leadership in getting the dilemma resolved.

California became one of 12 states to legalize marijuana use for medical purposes when voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996. Like many laws enacted through the initiative process, Proposition 215 is full of loopholes and unforeseen consequences that make meaningful state and county regulation challenging at best.

The biggest challenge of all lies in the fact that federal law prohibits the sale and use of marijuana, period. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency has been having a field day over the past several months, arresting marijuana dispensary owners in possession of legitimately obtained county permits.

Sometimes, as has been the case in Kern County, the local Sheriff's Department is providing manpower support on DEA busts -- in effect, helping arrest suspects for crimes committed with the sheriff's tacit approval.

Does that make Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood a co-conspirator in a series of federal crimes? Clearly we've gone through the looking glass on this one. No wonder Youngblood eventually opted to stop issuing permits -- at the potential risk, we assume, of flouting state law.

We need to rectify this bizarre state of affairs by cleaning up the inadequacies of the law created by Proposition 215. Those voluntary medical marijuana ID cards need to be mandatory and foolproof, for the protection of the user if nothing else. As it stands, less than 2 percent of medical marijuana users apply for the ID cards.

Prescribing physicians need to be held to higher standards so that the fly-by-night quacks who travel up and down the state, renting motel rooms from which they issue prescription "recommendations" -- often without demanding compelling evidence of medical need -- are reined in. Regulations pertaining the dispensing of medical marijuana should be as stringent as those pertaining to other pain medications subject to abuse, such as OxyContin.

State law should also tighten the amount of marijuana a single patient can possess at any one time. California law currently allows much greater quantities than other states that allow medical marijuana possession. The larger the quantity, the bigger the likelihood that black-market abuse will take place, either among dispensaries or patients.

But before any of those steps can meaningfully address reform of the medical marijuana dispensing system, Congress must act to eliminate galling conflicts.

Some in Congress, including Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, and Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., are getting behind a bill -- similar to 2005's failed Hinchey Amendment -- that would cut off funding for the prosecution of medical marijuana patients in states that have approved such programs.

Until Congress takes that step, nothing undertaken by California voters, or by the state Legislature, can go anywhere -- except up in smoke.

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Donation links to NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) | MPP (Marijuana Policy Project)

 

Tokamak

Yup. Throw his DEA-aiding ass in jail. He should have cited the will of the voters and refused to help. Or is this how he avoided charges as a co-conspirator?

Jeez... I knew Bako was a little behind the rest of the nation, but this year's Hinchey-Rohrabacher vote came and went over a month ago. This article makes it seem like it's still in the works for the immediate future.

Peace.

__________________
"He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know."
- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

CirocMartini

Recently I went to Bakersfield to renew my script. Just as I walked in the Dr.'s office I heard a news report on the office radio about the Dispensary closures in Kern County. So I turned around and drove 110 miles back home thinking thier is no point renewing since my favorite dispensary is closed. Is this the fate of all dispensaries in CA? Is it worth paying the $150 for my script anymore?

Viper420

The title of this thread is deceptive. There is no confusion between state and federal laws. Its black and white. Federal law overrides state law when it comes to medpot.