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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
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 Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 4:07 pm Post subject: County to sue to overturn medical marijuana law |
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County to sue to overturn medical marijuana law
By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
SAN DIEGO ---- County supervisors decided behind closed doors Tuesday to sue to try to overturn California's 9-year-old medical marijuana law ---- the "Compassionate Use" initiative in which voters statewide said it was OK for seriously ill people to use marijuana to ease their pain.
Supervisors announced last month they would sue the state because they did not want to create registries and identification cards to help medical marijuana users. But they left open the question of whether they would try to overturn Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act.
On Tuesday, the board made it official, voting 4-0, with Supervisor Ron Roberts absent, to challenge the initiative.
"It just seemed logical to us," Supervisor Bill Horn said Tuesday afternoon. "Why Mickey Mouse around about it?"
Horn and other supervisors have said repeatedly that they think Prop. 215 is a "bad law," and that supporting it would tell children that marijuana was OK, and would increase drug abuse.
But the board will officially try to overturn the initiative on the grounds that the state's proposition should be superseded by federal law ---- which considers marijuana illegal. John Sansone, the county's lead attorney, said the suits would be filed in federal court sometime this month, and that the challenge could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
Although 11 states have passed medical marijuana laws, the federal government still categorizes marijuana as a "Schedule 1" drug ---- meaning that it has no recognized medical value, putting it in the same classification as heroin, mescaline and LSD.
Ironically, the federal Food and Drug Administration has ruled that the active ingredient in marijuana ---- tetrahydrocannabinol, or "THC" ---- has medicinal value and allows it to be sold as a prescription drug, but only if it is produced synthetically, rather than grown.
California voters, meanwhile, voted by 55 percent in 1996 to allow people with serious or chronic diseases, with a doctor's recommendation, to grow or use marijuana to ease pain and other ailments.
San Diego-area nurse practitioner Claudia Little is on the medical advisory board of Americans for Safe Access, a national organization in support of medical marijuana patients. A month ago, Little and others pleaded with the county not to challenge the state's request that it create a registry for medical marijuana users.
Tuesday night, reached at home, Little sighed heavily upon learning that the county was planning to take the state to court over the voter-approved law itself.
"It's totally political," Little said. "The population is in favor of medical marijuana. The politicians are so far behind the curve here, it's ridiculous. The politicians aren't representing the people, they are just representing a handful of outspoken opponents."
Some of those who pleaded with county supervisors to reconsider their decision to challenge the medical marijuana issue in recent weeks said they were mothers, grandmothers, military veterans and other upstanding citizens who found that marijuana helped them where popular prescription drugs failed.
Marijuana has been known to reduce eye pressure in glaucoma cases. And proponents have said it has been known to increase appetites of cancer and AIDS patients, and to ease pain in many chronic diseases.
Horn, however, said supervisors believe the federal government's stance ---- that grown marijuana has no medical value and should be illegal ---- is right.
Now, they need a court's ruling.
"We need a federal judge to tell us, 'Yes, you do this (state law),' or 'No, you don't,' " Horn said.
SOURCE...
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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7295
Location: Amsterdam
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:27 pm Post subject: |
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More news...
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Marijuana group's survey says voters oppose supervisors' lawsuit
By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
Most county voters support California's 9-year-old medical marijuana law and oppose San Diego County supervisors' plan to sue to overturn it, according to a survey released Monday. In addition, the survey said most respondents would vote to replace the supervisors over the issue.
The $15,000 telephone survey of 500 randomly selected county voters ---- 100 from each of the county's five districts ---- was commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project, a national nonprofit group that wants to decriminalize all marijuana use.
County supervisors immediately suggested the survey was politically motivated by a pro-marijuana organization, and repeated that federal law still considers marijuana an illegal drug without medical benefit, and should take precedence over California's law.
"What do they say? 'Figures lie and liars figure?'" said Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, who has served as the board's chairwoman for the last year. "My first reaction is they've asked more people who support marijuana use."
Marijuana Policy Project officials, meanwhile, said the survey was an objective and valid sampling of the county's 1.379 million registered voters. They also said the group was considering mounting an initiative drive in San Diego County to ask voters to impose term limits on county supervisors. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they'd vote to replace their supervisors if they knew they supported overturning the medical marijuana law.
"The message is very clear," project spokesman Bruce Merkin said, "the voters don't want the board of supervisors to pursue this (lawsuit). They're comfortable with Proposition 215 (California's medical marijuana law). And they feel that rather than conducting a war on patients, the board should be defending the patients there are in the county."
Supervisors announced in December that they planned to sue the state to overturn Prop. 215, California's "Compassionate Use Act."
The law, passed in 1996, said "seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes" when recommended by a doctor.
San Diego County supervisors ---- who have steadfastly called the law a "bad" one that could increase marijuana abuse ---- voted in November to defy a separate state law that ordered the county to create an identification card and registration program for medical marijuana users.
In December, the board voted unanimously in closed session to sue to overturn Prop. 215 itself, on the basis that it should be pre-empted by federal law.
Slater-Price and the other supervisors said they could not in good conscience support Prop. 215 because federal drug enforcement agents could still arrest and prosecute California residents regardless of the state's law.
"I feel derelict in my duty to tell you it's OK, to do something when you could then go out and be arrested," Slater-Price said.
In fact, federal agents raided 13 San Diego-area marijuana dispensaries Dec. 12, including two in North County, and seized large quantities of the drug, computers and records in one of the largest crackdowns of its kind in the state.
Federal officials said the dispensaries were "fronts" for distributing the drug.
Marijuana advocacy groups called the raids outrageous, cowardly acts of an administration out of touch with voters.
The Marijuana Policy Project's survey, released Monday, reported:
- 67 percent of respondents supported Prop. 215.
- 70 percent said the county should follow state law and create the identification card program.
- 78 percent of respondents said supervisors "should not be wasting taxpayer money suing the state to try to overturn California's medical marijuana law."
However, some of those numbers could be misleading.
Sal Vescera, an analyst with the opinion and research firm that conducted the survey ---- Seattle-based Evans McDonough Company ---- said the survey had a 4.38 percent margin of error, meaning the real percentages could swing by that margin in either direction.
In addition, the overall percentages of support were combinations of strong and mild support.
For example, of the 67 percent who reported supporting Prop. 215, only 44 percent "strongly" supported the law. Another 23 percent "somewhat" supported the law, yielding the 67 percent overall support.
Likewise, 50 percent strongly agreed that supervisors should create the identification card program; while 20 percent "somewhat agreed."
However, 62 percent said supervisors "should not be wasting taxpayer money suing the state to overturn California's medical marijuana law. Sixteen percent "somewhat agreed."
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/10/news/top_stories/1906193641.txt
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