Court Opens Door for Prosecuting Med Pot Suppliers

This smells Brown to me....

Court Opens Door for Prosecuting Med Pot Suppliers
cannabisnews.com: Court Opens Door for Prosecuting Med Pot Suppliers
Posted by CN Staff on November 24, 2008 at 14:48:57 PT
By Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Source: San Francisco Chronicle

medical San Francisco, CA -- Someone who supplies marijuana to a patient who has a doctor's approval for it can be prosecuted for drug-dealing, the state Supreme Court ruled today in a narrow interpretation of California's medical marijuana law.

Advocates on both sides of the case agreed that the unanimous ruling would encourage Californians to obtain medical marijuana from patient cooperatives, which are authorized by a 2003 state law, rather than from an individual supplier.

"Ideally, it (the ruling) won't have a tremendous effect," said Joseph Elford, a lawyer for Americans for Safe Access, a pro-medical marijuana group. "Patients will now increasingly get their medication through collectives and cooperatives."

The 2003 law "provides an alternative outlet for patients," agreed Deputy Attorney General Michele Swanson, the state's lawyer. She said Monday's ruling applies only to a category of suppliers - those who are not the patient's caretaker or fellow cooperative member - whom the voters never intended to protect when they passed Proposition 215 in 1996.

But Lawrence Gibbs, attorney for the Santa Cruz County man who appealed his marijuana-dealing convictions, said the court "made it much, much more difficult for qualified patients to get their medical marijuana."

Although patients can turn to cooperatives or clubs, Gibbs said, the resulting centralization of cultivation and supply will make raids and prosecutions much easier for federal authorities, who are not bound by Prop. 215. President-elect Barack Obama said during the campaign that he supports a state's right to legalize the medical use of marijuana, but believes it should be subject to regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The ruling is the second time this year the state Supreme Court has limited the scope of Prop. 215, which allowed patients to grow and use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

In January, the court ruled that employers could fire medical marijuana patients who tested positive for the drug after using it away from the workplace. A bill to overturn that decision was approved by the state Legislature, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

Snipped

Complete Article: State high court opens door for prosecuting some medical pot suppliers

Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Author: Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Published: Monday, November 24, 2008
Copyright: 2008 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact: [email protected]
Website: SF Gate: San Francisco Chronicle

CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives
cannabisnews.com: medical related topics

Still playing games terrorizing sick people
over legislation that started with Nixon's lies.

Court Opens Door for Prosecuting Med Pot Suppliers By Bob Egelko
CN Source: San Francisco Chronicle November 24, 2008 San Francisco, CA

Someone who supplies marijuana to a patient who has a doctor's approval for it can be prosecuted for drug-dealing, the state Supreme Court ruled today in a narrow interpretation of California's medical marijuana law.

Advocates on both sides of the case agreed that the unanimous ruling would encourage Californians to obtain medical marijuana from patient cooperatives, which are authorized by a 2003 state law, rather than from an individual supplier.

"Ideally, it (the ruling) won't have a tremendous effect," said Joseph Elford, a lawyer for Americans for Safe Access, a pro-medical marijuana group. "Patients will now increasingly get their medication through collectives and cooperatives."

The 2003 law "provides an alternative outlet for patients," agreed Deputy Attorney General Michele Swanson, the state's lawyer. She said Monday's ruling applies only to a category of suppliers - those who are not the patient's caretaker or fellow cooperative member - whom the voters never intended to protect when they passed Proposition 215 in 1996.

But Lawrence Gibbs, attorney for the Santa Cruz County man who appealed his marijuana-dealing convictions, said the court "made it much, much more difficult for qualified patients to get their medical marijuana."

Although patients can turn to cooperatives or clubs, Gibbs said, the resulting centralization of cultivation and supply will make raids and prosecutions much easier for federal authorities, who are not bound by Prop. 215. President-elect Barack Obama said during the campaign that he supports a state's right to legalize the medical use of marijuana, but believes it should be subject to regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The ruling is the second time this year the state Supreme Court has limited the scope of Prop. 215, which allowed patients to grow and use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

In January, the court ruled that employers could fire medical marijuana patients who tested positive for the drug after using it away from the workplace. A bill to overturn that decision was approved by the state Legislature, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

Snipped... Complete Article

Contact: [email protected] * Website

Di Fi Watch
"unofficial" source for information about U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein

Patient's License Revoked by DMV

Painkillers Are OK At Work - But Not Marijuana?

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Nixon lied to schedule Ganja #1

Outside View: Nixon Tapes Pot Shocker
One can imagine Nixon's surprise when rumors began circulating in early '71 that the "L-word" was on the table. He responded curtly at his next press conference: "Even if the Commission does recommend that it be legalized, I will not follow that recommendation.

"You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob?

"You're enough of a pro," Nixon tells Shafer, "to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what the Congress feels and what the country feels, and what we're planning to do, would make your commission just look bad as hell."
- Richard Milhouse Nixon

"Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency, although some evidence indicates that the heavy, long-term users may develop a psychological dependence on the drug"
- The Shafer Commission of 1970

Jerry Brown Losing Control?

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Except for the part dealing with Nixon.....which to me is like talking about how I should have done something different a long time ago (in other words....impossible to change so why continue to cry about it) I love your post!!

Thanks for some good info and please post more often. :)

thanks, the Nixon reference includes me too. What could we have done as kids against a machine like Nixon? No, but his lies are still lies and all the Ganja laws are based on his one lie 40 years ago, making claims about Ganja that were not true and scheduled it as a class#1 narcotic. So separating the tokers into lumps that get different treatment for doing the same things, for something proven less harmful than the legal booze and cigarettes and foreign police actions called wars. It is still a lie and Nixon still sucks and compromising for lies end up with rich politicians investing in buyers clubs.

Medicinal Pot Caregivers Can Be Persecuted By Jennifer Squires
CN Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel November 24, 2008 Santa Cruz, CA

Medicinal marijuana caregivers may be prosecuted as drug dealers, according to a state Supreme Court ruling issued Monday.

The ruling upholds a Santa Cruz County Superior Court jury decision that found medicinal marijuana user Roger Mentch, 53, guilty of cultivating and possessing marijuana for sale.

Mentch, who was arrested by sheriff's deputies in 2003, claimed he was a caregiver for five medicinal marijuana patients. He also opened the Hemporium, a medicinal marijuana collective in Felton, where he sometimes sold the pot he grew.

"I was a caregiver with honest intent," Mentch said.

When jurors found him guilty and he was sentenced to three years probation, Mentch appealed the decision on several points, including that jurors were not properly instructed about medicinal marijuana caregivers. The three-member 6th District Court of Appeals agreed with him and overturned the jury's ruling.

However, the seven justices on the state Supreme Court reached a different conclusion. The court ruled primary caregivers must have an established care-giving relationship with the patient prior to providing that patient with medicinal marijuana, according to the decision.

Also, primary caregivers can only provide pot to those patients, not sell the drug to other medicinal users or collectives.

Therefore, Mentch's sales to the Hemporium and another collective in the county amounted to dealing drugs on a street corner, according to the court ruling.

The court stated that those acts "do nothing to insulate from prosecution for his cultivation of and sale of marijuana for those for whom he did not provide shelter or nonmarijuana-based health care... nor would it protect him from prosecution for cultivating marijuana and providing it to cannabis clubs."

Santa Cruz attorney Ben Rice, who is representing Mentch in a 2006 marijuana cultivation and sales case, said the court ruling is unfortunate because it makes it harder for medicinal marijuana patients who have a valid medical recommendation to obtain pot.

California voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996, giving ill people the right to use marijuana legally as long as they have a prescription from a doctor. However, the law did not outline how medicinal marijuana could be distributed.

"There's no direction in the law, no explanation as to how people are supposed to get their medicine if they can't grow it themselves," Rice said. "It's an unworkable situation."

The Mentch decision narrowly defines the role of caregiver, but does not affect cooperatives, including the Hemporium and the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz, according to local medicinal marijuana advocates.

Valerie Corral, one of the co-founders of WAMM, supported the court decision.

"It further defines the role of caregivers and makes it clear. It's a great way for people to understand our roles as caregivers and how we have to assume something more," Corral said.

WAMM, a collective of patients and caregivers, provides medicinal marijuana to ill patients. But Corral said WAMM goes beyond picking up a patient's medicine by providing a community of support for ill members.

"We're at people's bedsides," she said.

Mentch, who continues to operate the Hemporium, said he still has hope his case will turn out differently. The court system apparently only addressed three of 10 issues brought up on appeal and he believes the case will be returned to a lower court for further analysis.

Complete Title: Medicinal Pot Caregivers Can Be Prosecuted for Selling Drugs, Court Rules

Contact: [email protected] * Website * URL

WAMM

CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives

Ya, when the wise men fall... Healthy people smoking marijuana should die. Fersher... Rape them in prison, take away their job. Kick em out of school if they're in, keep em out if they ain't. Deny them public housing, foodstamps and Pell grants. For Life. Kick down their doors if it smells like skunk. But annonymous tips and plea bargained snitches, are more consistant.. The seniors and Hospice in HUD housing can't risk eviction by growing. Forcing them to give up something just to pay for Ganja medicine or give up and have the insurance pay for white powders. Or loose the home for signing up, properly. Catch 22, DejaVu!

Now more snipers can put 8 bullets into more Rainbow Farm warriors heads. Liberty robbed from the poor to give to the rich, and their security forces. More D.E.A.th to the people. Believe in an assumtion, that started on lies? Pitifuckinful display if I ever did see one... "Valerie Corral supported the court decision." Sounds more like a plea bargain public service message. Santa Cruz attorney Ben Rice says... "It's an unworkable situation." "There's no direction in the law, no explanation as to how people are supposed to get their medicine if they can't grow it themselves," The Citizens Prop 215 is still the law of the land! No Judge can Legislate. No Politician or Cop can veto a Citizens Initiative. These authoritahs just don't get it.
They're not necessary.

I guess the Kangaroo's came with the Eucalyptus trees...

Court Cliarifies Medical Marijuana Caregiver Defense
(like butter greasing the pan for slicksters...)

Note. that's the Compassionate Use Act
not the Medicinal Marijuana Act...

Safe Access Now Online Handbook
Cannabis Yields and Dosage (Part 1)
By Chris Conrad (c) 2004 , 2005, 2007

HS 11362.5. (a) This section shall be known and may be cited as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

* has been recommended by a physician
* person's health would benefit
* or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.
* no physician in this state shall be punished,
Dr. Mollie Fry gets 5 ******* Years! MM
* Illegal possession and cultivation of marijuana,
shall not apply to a patient, or to a patient's primary caregiver
* upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician
* HS 11362.71. (a) (1) The department shall establish and maintain a voluntary program for the issuance of identification cards to qualified patients who satisfy the requirements of this article and
voluntarily apply to the identification card program.
* "Qualified patient" means a person who is entitled to the protections of Section 11362.5, but who does not have an identification card issued pursuant to this article.
* It shall not be necessary for a person to obtain an identification card in order to claim the protections of Section 11362.5.
* A qualified patient or a person with an identification card
* Any individual who provides assistance
* A designated primary caregiver who transports, processes, administers, delivers, or gives away marijuana for medical purposes
* (a) Subject to the requirements of this article, the individuals specified in subdivision (b) shall not be subject, on that sole basis, to criminal liability.

This 6-inch diameter canister held 254.89 grams of federal medical marijuana for an IND patient, a typical monthly supply mailed from the federal cannabis research garden in Mississippi.

An indoor garden: More harvests, but smaller plants

Outdoors: With a typical growing season that lasts from March or April into September or October, outdoor plants have a long time to grow and usually much more space to spread out, so they tend to be larger.

Half the plants grown from cannabis seed are males that are worthless for marijuana.

100 square feet of mature female canopy from seed or clone is harvested at one time outdoors, with a total yield of ±50 ounces (3.1 pounds) of bud to last the entire year.

"The quantity possessed by the patient or the primary caregiver, and the form and manner in which it is possessed, should be reasonably related to the patient's current medical needs."
-- California Court of Appeals, People v. Trippet (1997)

http://www.appletreeblog.com/wp-cont...stone-cops.jpg

"They've outlawed the number one vegetable on the planet."
-- TIMOTHY LEARY

California Politics Drive Cannabis Club Crackdown
By Justin Scheck and Rhonda L. Rundle
CN Source: Wall Street Journal August 29, 2008 CA
California Attorney General Jerry Brown issued restrictive guidelines this week for medical-marijuana sellers, bolstering his tough-on-crime credentials as he looks ahead to a possible gubernatorial bid in 2010. California Attorney General Issues Medical Marijuana Guidelines -- Mostly Good But Some Problems, Say Advocates,

Attorney General Proposes Sensible Rules * Attorney General Jerry Brown's * Brown's Rules * Jerry Brown Gets Tough * DA Compliments AG

June 05, 2008

Jerry Brown To Challenge Court's Ruling on MMJ By Tim Reiterman
CN Source: Los Angeles Times June 05, 2008 San Francisco, CA
State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown is preparing to challenge a recent appellate court decision that struck down California's guidelines on medical marijuana possession and cultivation, leaving patients and police wondering how much weed is too much. Brown said in an interview this week that he would ask the Supreme Court to overturn last month's by the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, because it inhibits the state's attempts to control abuses while protecting legitimate access to cannabis.

Do They Also Believe That The Earth Is Flat?
August 27th, 2008 By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
In short, there is no â??confusionâ?? regarding the legality of Californiaâ??s pot laws. There is only arrogance and recalcitrance on the part of those who have chosen to abuse their power and position to hamstring the will of the voters, the legislature, and the courts.

August 19 - August 27, 2008

* DEA Letter Targets Medical Marijuana August 19, 2008
* Supreme Court To Consider Marijuana Limits August 20, 2008
* Federal War on Medical Pot Challenged August 21, 2008
* Federal Judge Backs Medical Pot Activists' Suit August 21, 2008
* Feds' Medical Pot Challenge Tossed August 22, 2008
* Some Medi-Pot Dispensaries May Be Illegal August 25, 2008
* California Attorney General Issues MMJ Guidelines August 26, 2008
* Jerry Brown Gets Tough on Medical Pot Clubs August 26, 2008
* Attorney General's Office Releases MMJ Guidelines August 26, 2008
* Brown's Rules on Medical Marijuana August 27, 2008
* Attorney General Proposes Sensible Rules on Pot August 27, 2008
* Brown Doesn't End Pot Debate
Source: Daily Bulletin By Wendy Leung August 27, 2008CN
If state Attorney General Jerry Brown's medical-marijuana recommendations released this week were meant to clarify a muddied issue caused by conflicting state and federal law, not all local officials saw the light. Some welcomed Brown's effort to protect legal dispensaries and patients, but others believed the guidelines released Monday were far from the final word.

guidelines

LEAP Becomes Latest Victim of Government Censorship
Arlington: Virginia - Retired police detective Howard Wooldridge, representing Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), was ousted from the National Asian Peace Officers Association (NAPOA) Conference in Crystal City because he was representing a view contrary to U.S. government policy.

COPsAgainstGanjawar
CrazyCalvinaFay
WomansWackyVengeanceUnion

btw... that Jerry Brown do do do dodo
Jerry Brown do do do dodo He's a clown,
do do do dodo that Jerry Brown, do do do
He's gonna get caught, just you wait and see,
why's everybody always pickin on 215?

This decision opens the doors for a whole lot of problems for many dispensaries. Anybody have any input on how many are looking to or have already closed their doors due to this decision?

This is awful.

The "drug war" is a war on all of us. We need to stand up to these bastards and insist that our rights be respected.

God damn it, my hatred for these "drug warriors" is growing deeper and deeper. They wage their war against our people, our friends, and our loved ones and we respond as kind and loving individuals would; in a humble and respectful manner. THEY respond as if leading sheep to the slaughter.

Satan laughing spreads his wings.

Lead

Is it a vegetable?

At any rate....i'll be reading for awhile. Thanks again for all this terrific info. Id rep you again but the systems says I have to wait before I can.

I'm quite familiar with the Dr Marion Fry case as she was the doctor from whom I got my medical recommendation (sp?) from. The title makes it sound unfair; but according to court testimony there was a bit more going on there than strictly offering recommenations so if you read through the court stuff it gives you a bit of a different idea than is portrayed in some of the news. She is now in jail, of course, but the clinic she and her husband started still remains and is staffed with a new doctor.

Not really sure what point I'm even trying to make here....but sometimes there is a pretty fine line between a "caregiver' and a "dealer."

The laws need to be more clear for sure!!

Post on!! :thumbsup:

"Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could."
--William F. Buckley Jr

Caregivers Should Provide More Than Just Marijuana By Mike McKee
CN Source: Recorder November 25, 2008 California

Being a caregiver under the state's medical marijuana statutes, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday, requires more than supplying patients with pot or occasional trips to the doctor.

Instead, the court held, it requires consistently providing the "daily life necessities" of patients well before marijuana is considered an option.

"The words the statute uses -- housing, health, safety," Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar wrote, "imply a caretaking relationship directed at the core survival needs of a seriously ill patient, not just one single pharmaceutical need."

The 22-page ruling is bad news for the average medical marijuana grower who wants to sell to ailing friends, but good news for law enforcement officers who would like to rein in a growing number of outlaw caregivers around the state.

Berkeley solo Lawrence Gibbs, who represented a Santa Cruz County man claiming caregiver status, said the ruling "drastically narrowed the class of people who can qualify as primary caregivers" and forces those seeking medicinal pot to turn to government-approved collectives and cooperatives.

San Francisco-based Deputy Attorney General Michele Swanson, who presented the state's position, said the decision "draws the line more clearly" on who can be a marijuana caregiver.

"There have been a lot of illegal operations popping up," she said, "and this decision has made clear they are operating outside the law."

Roger Mentch was arrested in 2003 after narcotics investigators found 190 plants in various stages of development in his house. He claimed he grew so many plants because he was the primary caregiver for five other people, whom he counseled on usage, taught how to grow, and even sporadically drove to the doctor.

Mentch was charged with cultivating marijuana and possessing it for sale after officers decided he was running a for-profit business that enabled him to deposit as much as $5,500 a month in his bank account.

At trial, Mentch argued he should be allowed to present the affirmative defense that he was entitled to grow marijuana and sell it to others because he qualified as a primary caregiver under the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, codified as Health & Safety Code §11362.5. But Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Samuel Stevens refused.

Mentch received three years' probation. But San Jose's Sixth District Court of Appeal reversed his conviction last year, saying there was enough evidence that Mentch qualified as a caregiver to permit the affirmative defense at trial. The Supreme Court seemed torn on the issue at oral argument in October.

On Monday, the justices disagreed with the appellate court, holding in People v. Mentch, 08 C.D.O.S. 14435, that medical marijuana caregivers must have consistently provided care to patients before they found they might benefit from marijuana use.

"What is not permitted," Werdegar wrote, "is for an individual to establish an after-the-fact caregiving relationship in an effort to thereby immunize from prosecution previous cultivation or possession for sale."

Werdegar said the court's interpretation should "pose no obstacle" for bona fide caregivers.

"The spouse or domestic partner caring for his or her ailing companion, the child caring for his or her ailing parent, the hospice nurse caring for his or her ailing patient," she wrote, "each can point to the many ways in which they, medical marijuana aside, attend to and assume responsibility for the core survival needs of their dependents."

The Compassionate Use Act, she added, "allows them, insofar as state criminal law is concerned, to add the provision of marijuana, where medically recommended or approved, as one more arrow in their caregiving quiver."

The Supreme Court also tossed Mentch's argument that he deserved the affirmative defense under the medical marijuana statute that allows individuals to advise patients how to cultivate their own medical marijuana.

"As it is undisputed Mentch did much more than administer, advise and counsel," Werdegar wrote, "the program provides him no defense."

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Complete Title: Medical Pot Caregivers Should Provide More Than Just Marijuana, Says Calif. Supreme Court

Ruling * Contact * Website

Court Ruling Will Limit Solo Pot Providers
The case is People vs. Mentch, S148204

DEAth Raids in LA

On Wednesday, the District 6 Court of Appeals overturned a lower court conviction in the case of Robert Mentch, director or the Hemporium, a medical marijuana delivery service. On June 6th 2003, the home of Roger Mentch was raided by the Santa Cruz County Sheriffs drug task force. In August 2005, Mentch was again raided by the Marijuana Enforcement Team.

Government Shows No Compassion for Medical Pot

Compassionate caregiver, Roger Mentch, was arrested and jailed in August of last year--again for cultivating and selling medical marijuana through his California-registered medical marijuana dispensary, the Hemporium, to medical marijuana patients. He reports he was held for 7 days in jail on a probation violation hold. Not satisfied, the Marijuana Enforcement Team then went to a second judge (Almquist) and got a search warrant, tore up his entire crop, and destroyed it.

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This just doesn't make too much sense to me. Caregiver should be doing EVERYTHING for the the patient....not just growing. Did I read that correctly? I hope not because it's just not a very realistic approach to the situation.

Some people can't grow, don't want to take the time, the energy etc for WHATEVER reason. They should be able to get their meds somewhere just like everyone else who walks into a pharmacy does. :wtf: