cj117

By Steve Elliott in Chronic City, Government, Health, Law & Order
Thursday, Jul. 30 2009 @ 12:30PM


This goes a long way towards explaining why it is that so many law enforcement officers in the state still seem to harbor such personal animosity toward medical marijuana and those who use it, even after it's been legal in the state for 13 years. Above and beyond the seemingly eternal cop/pot dichotomy, the cops' own "medical marijuana training materials" tell them that -- contrary to the law -- there's no such thing as medical marijuana, and that all marijuana is illegal!


This misinformation has real-life consequences. Californians who legally use and provide medical marijuana are faced with hostile police and judges who have only heard or choose to believe information which is plainly wrong regarding medicinal pot's legal status here, and inaccurate regarding its effectiveness as medicine, as supported by thousands of doctors and hundreds of studies.



Courtesy eugenedavidovich.com
Eugene Davidovich: Victim of the pot culture wars?

Eugene Davidovich, a San Diego medical marijuana provider who was arrested last February as part of Operation Green Rx (aka Operation Endless Summer), told me that the chief investigative officer in his case testified on the stand that he bases his expert testimony, as far as "medical marijuana training," on a handout from something called the Narcotic Educational Foundation of America, "Drug Abuse Education Provider of the California Narcotic Officers' Association."


In this toxic little screed, with the title Use of Marijuana As A "Medicine" (the quotes are theirs), we learn right off the bat -- in the first sentence! -- that "Marijuana, a plant from the cannabis family, is illegal and highly psychoactive." No mention of the fact that medical use of marijuana is legal, mind you -- and this in materials used to educate law enforcement officers.


I'll bet you thought that the issue of medical marijuana was settled when Proposition 215 was voted in back in 1996. Not so fast! You're just a civilian. The cops know better; and guess what? It sure looks as if the cops get to pick which laws they like, and which ones they want to ignore. "MARIJUANA IS NOT A MEDICINE," the "educational" pamphlet screams at its gun-toting, badge-wearing readers.





"Many well-intentioned leaders and members of the public have been misled by the well-financed and organized pro-drug legalization lobby, into believing there is merit to their argument that smoking marijuana is a safe and effective medicine," the pamphlet informs officers. "There is no justification for using marijuana as a medicine."


Once the officers have been, er, "trained" as to the illegitimacy of medical marijuana, they are dutifully informed that it is just ever so immoral and icky as well. "We have seen first hand the debilitating and often tragic results, both psychologically and physically, of those who choose intoxication as a part of their lifestyle," the pamphlet laments in one particularly purple passage.


The pamphlet then attempts to cloak its (legally incorrect for California) estimation of marijuana's uselessness as medicine and its enormous moral judgments around the weed in some sort of scientific respectability by citing outdated studies, all of which have been since refuted by more modern findings.


"It is actually scary what goes on in court," Davidovich told me. "I really hope that somehow a stop can be put to this. This is one of the reasons I am so public about these hateful people. There are a lot of patients who are needlessly suffering here in San Diego."

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SmokeyMcPott

That pamphlet makes me sick. People's ignorance really pisses me off sometimes.

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"When the power of love overcomes love of power, the world will have peace..."

yoman3

Exactly. This is just terrible.

Texas Toker

The cops have a vested self interest in keeping pot illegal. How do you think they can afford all the shiny new surveillance crap they get? Tax dollars pay for all that stuff. If there was no weed there is no need is their mantra but they dont want to look at it from the if its legal there is no need.

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You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas. -Davy Crockett
I hate Obama and Pelosi as much as you hate Bush.

alapoet

It's really ridiculous, what they're doing to legal patients and providers in San Diego and elsewhere in California.

Thanks for helping to get the word out!

BudSmoker92

Sounds like theyre holding a grudge..

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claygooding

Billions of dollars are given to the police in every town in America from the War on Drugs
budget,plus,any confiscations of monies,properties,and possessions from a drug bust goes to the budget in their towns. When you speak anything that will cost them any money they get,you are the enemy.
Watch and see,if they go to treatment instead of prison,they won't stop the confiscations and stealing from us useless potheads.

Vendettagainst

Not all cops are bad, and a lot of cops in Cali actually don't care - same with New Mexico. There will always be the cops who believe that unfortunately.

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I was gonna do it
But then I got high

zoo

Maybe in order to bring the cop culture at San Diego PD (and the rest of the State) into the 21st century; the SDPD shouldn't be allowed to discriminate against their toking officers who have medical cannabis recommendations?

It is my understanding that admitting to being a medical cannabis patient while employed by the police department is a firing offense.

DryTimes

I can picture leos getting hard from reading that flyer "Use of Marijuana as a 'Medicine'"

No wonder why they're so brutal when it comes to herb.