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MPP Calls for National Boycott of Wal-Mart
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the nation’s largest marijuana policy reform organization called upon shoppers across the country to boycott Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in order to protest the unjust...
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Courage under fire in San Diego |
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Written by Justin Baker
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Wednesday, 08 February 2006 |
Cannabis outlets continue to serve patients after raids
Police raids hit 13 San Diego dispensaries on Dec. 12. Soon thereafter
the County Board of Supervisors instructed its attorneys to file a
federal lawsuit seeking to recriminalize medical marijuana in
California. Dispensary operators and patient groups said they are, in
turn, taking action against the Supervisors.
Within days, many of the dispensaries were open and
serving patients again, as government officials said they were
continuing to investigate the supply network that provides medicine to
qualified patients consistent with State law. Drug agents, who used
forged documents to entrap the staff, alleged that each dispensary had
failed to verify at least one fraudulent physicians’ letters when
presented.
Support rallies were held in San Francisco, Sacramento and a dozen other cities nationwide to protest the raids and denounce the Supervisors attempt to thwart the will of the voters.
“San Diego is the touchstone for medical marijuana in the state,” said
Oakland attorney Rob Raich on his return from a recent trip to the
area. “That’s where both the good and the bad are going down.”
ACLU threatens suit
The American Civil Liberties Union announced
Jan. 18 that it was sending a letter to warn the County that it would
intervene to force the county to follow state law, which was approved
by 56% of state voters. “For this one county to decide to go against
the will of California voters — it’s unprecedented and it’s
unconstitutional,” said the ACLU’s Anjuli Verma.
The Board’s attack on the rule of state law prompted
local activists to announce a petition for a voter initiative to impose
term limits on the five county supervisors, all of whom have sat on the
Board for at least 12 years and have drifted out of touch with the
community they serve. If successful, the effort would still not remove
any Board member during the current term.
The raids appeared to be part of a larger scheme
hatched in San Diego to outlaw medical marijuana by trumping up charges
against the dispensaries, feeding information to federal agents and
trying to get the popular law passed by voters in 1996 held
unconstitutional by federal courts.
Two separate jurisdictions
The separation of state and federal
jurisdictions goes back to the slave era, when states refused to
enforce the federal Runaway Slave Act that required African Americans
to be returned to slavery after they escaped to so-called “Free
States.” The Supervisors are essentially trying to return to the era of
policies that propped up slavery and led to the Civil War.
California’s state law, Prop 215 (HS 11362.5) has
twice been revisited at the US Supreme Court level which held, in 2001
and 2005, that state law does not trump a federal ban on medical
cannabis. However, in 2006 the court voted to uphold an Oregon law
legalizing death with dignity under limited circumstances. The medical
restriction of Prop 215 is similar in that it affects medical use of a
federal controlled substance, in California to relieve suffering and in
Oregon to end it.
Cannabis is not a listed controlled substance in
California law, it has its own sections of the health code that apply
to its possession, cultivation, production, sales, transportation, and
other aspects. (See sidebar on this page.)
San Diego County voters are decidedly unhappy with
their Board’s scheme to attack the law in federal court. In a poll
taken Jan. 3-4, San Diego County voters favor the landmark state law by
a margin of two to one, and an even larger percentage of voters do not
want their tax money spent trying to overturn it.
The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) commissioned the
poll late last year after the Supervisors refused to implement a state
law requiring counties to provide ID cards to protect qualified
patients and caregivers from arrest for possessing or providing small
amounts of medicine.
Some 67% of San Diego County voters surveyed said
they support the initiative approved by voters and 80% agreed that, the
pending lawsuit “is wasting taxpayers’ money.” In a statement released
with the poll, MPP director Rob Kampia warned that, “The supervisors
pursue this suit at their own peril.”
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Justin Baker |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 24 September 2006 )
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Volume 2 
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