Medical Pot Limit Raised

[Lilli]

Medical Pot Limit Raised
Posted by CN Staff on October 07, 2004 at 07:29:08 PT
By Maria Alicia Gaura, Chronicle Staff Writer
Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Santa Cruz County medical marijuana users may now legally possess as much as 3 pounds of pot -- at least as far as the local authorities are concerned.
The county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to set the 3- pound limit at the urging of medical marijuana advocates, who argued that the sickest patients frequently use upwards of an ounce of marijuana per week to ease their symptoms. The board also voted to allow medical users to grow a home garden plot of the herb measuring 100 square feet.

Marijuana is an annual crop, so the 3-pound limit will allow users to obtain a single supply that can last them an entire year.

"Three pounds sounds like a lot, but it's just a few marijuana cigarettes per day, when you break it down," said Valerie Corral, one of the founders of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, a Santa Cruz marijuana-growing collective.

Corral uses marijuana several times daily to suppress seizures caused by injuries she suffered in a car accident.

"About 15 percent of our patients use in excess of 5 pounds per year," Corral said. "They suffer from everything from chronic pain to cancer and AIDS, chemotherapy and wasting."

While the new county ordinance will protect marijuana users from prosecution by local law enforcement, it won't do much to dissuade federal agents. The federal government does not recognize California's rules allowing medical marijuana use, which voters enacted in 1996 by passing Proposition 215.

"The federal government still insists that there is no such thing as medicinal marijuana," said Glenn Backes, director of the Sacramento office of the Drug Policy Alliance, a national advocacy group organized to reform drug laws.

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