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Home My WebLink About3/19/2003 - STAFF REPORTS (14) ,3 � 1 j�a3 Statement by f2(4tie__ 0107&& LANNY SWERDLOW Executive Director, Marijuana Anti-Prohibition Project ""`7 �L ®Q�� ) PC Box 739, Palm Springs CA 92263 - 760-799-2055 LcPl!</ f mappnow@hotmail.com -www.marijuananews.com Proposition 215 and Health and Safety Code 11362.5 legalized the medicinal use of marijuana in the state of California. Unfortunately, it is the only state law that can be interpreted one way in Alpine County and another way in Imperial Comity. State Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office has stated that, until there are statewide guidelines, his office "has deferred to local discretion." Although statewide guidelines have passed the California legislature several times, they have never been enacted into law due to veto or veto threats by former Governor Pete Wilson and present Governor Davis. Consequently, there are no statewide guidelines and unlike several other counties, there are no guidelines at the present time in Riverside County. Until there are statewide or countywide guidelines, it is up to each local city government to enact its own guidelines. Currently there are no guidelines in Palm Springs regarding the enforcement of Prop. 215. One police officer may come across a medical marijuana patient with two pounds and twenty plants and walk away while another may find a patient with two ounces and two plants and haul them off to jail. It's the same as having a highway and letting each officer decide what the speed limit is. The situation was very similar in San Diego County and that is why the city of San Diego just recently passed it own guidelines so that local law enforcement would not affect an arrest of a medical marijuana patient if the amount of marijuana they possessed and cultivated did not exceed the amount specified in the guidelines. At a meeting on Tuesday, March 4 at Hunter's Video Bar, Police Chief Jeandron stated that he has issued no guidelines or directions of any kind to Palm Springs Police Officers regarding the enforcement of Health and Safety Code 11352.5. Until the beghming of 2003, there had been no arrests of any medical marijuana patients by Palm Springs Police. Since the beginning of this year there have been at least two arrests that I am aware of Although the people being arrested may not qualify as poster children for medical marijuana patients, the fact is that Palm Springs police officers are now arresting patients. Yet these officers have no guidelines on how to recognize a legitimate medical marijuana patient or how much marijuana a patient may possess or cultivate before determining that the amount is excessive and an arrest should be made. To remedy the situation in Palm Springs, we request that a citizen's task force be formed to look into the issue. The task force composed of patients, law enforcement, medical marijuana organizations, health professionals and other civic minded citizens, should research the issue and present recommendations to the Palm Springs City Council for possible action. Until statewide guidelines are issued, Palm Springs shouldjoin the 15 counties and six municipalities that have issued guidelines for their local law enforcement agencies. It is the progressive and compassionate path to take. It also supports the will of California voters when they passed Proposition 215 over six years ago and facilitates legal compliance with California state law. CALIFORNIA COUNTY GUIDELINES Butte: Sheriff and DAjoinlly stipulate 6 plants, with 3 matures and 3 immature per patient and 1 Ib of dry material. Calaveras: Board of Supervisors- resolution allowing 6 plants and 2 pounds per patient. Colusa: Case by case review. They have permitted 2 plants outdoors and 4 Plants indoors and 1.5 Ibs of processed cannabis. Del Norte: Maximum 100 square feet cultivation area and 99 plants or fewer, with a one-pound possession limit. F1 Dorado: Sheriffand DA stipulate 6 plants and I pound in residence or 1 oz. in vehicle. Humboldt: 10 plants or 2 pounds processed cannabis, but amount must be consistent with medical needs. Patient ID cards available for county residents from Dept. of Public Health (707) 268-2185. Marin: Patient ID Cards available for county residents from Dept. of Public Health. No specific plant or weight limits. Mendocino: Sheriff and DA policy of 25 plants in no more than 100 square feet and 2 pounds processed cannabis Pei, patient. Nevada: 10 plants, not to yield more than 2 pounds, and 2 pounds processed cannabis. Shasta: Sheriff, DA and local police chief stipulate patients can grow 2 plants outdoors or indoors, 6 plants/3 flowering. 1.33 pounds dried cannabis is also allowed. Sierra: Outdoors: 3 plants: indoors: 6 plants; quantity in possession assessed for medical need as recommended by a physician. Sonoma: DA's guidelines permit possession of 3 pounds and cultivation of 99 plants within a maximum area of 100 feet. Tehama: Sheriffs policy to allow 18 immature plants or 6 mature. Ventura: Sheriff's policy to allow 6 plants or one pound per patient. Yuba: htlormal policy with individual case review allowing 5,plants or 1.5 pounds processed cannabis per patient. CALIFORNIA CITY GUIDELINES Arcata: Ordinance and ID card system maintained by Chief of Police. Allows 10 plants + /,_ lb dried cannabis. Berkeley: Ordinance allows 10 plants and 2.5 Ibs per patient, or 50 plants and 12.5 Ibs for collectives. Oakland: City council resolution that allows indoor 72 plants in maximum 36 sq. feet growing area, and outdoors 20 plants. Weight limit per patients is 3 dried pounds per patient. San Francisco: City ordinance established ID Cards run by SF health department for residents of San Francisco, San Malco, Santa Clara, Marin, Sonoma counties; no plant nrimbers or amount of medicine is specified Santa Cruz: City ordinance regulates cannabis clubs and allows physicians diagnosis as a legal recommendation. San Diego: Ordinance allows cultivation of 24 plants indoors only with a maximum 64 sq. foot growing area. Patients may possess I pound processed cannabis. 103 C,- March 17, 2003 To: Palm Springs City Council I request the City Council to establish a Medical Marijuana citizen's task force for the purpose of developing and recommending to the Council, standardized local guidelines for the legal cultivation and possession of Medical Marijuana that would be applicable for bona fide patients, their caretakers, and Palm Springs law enforcement. Although California voters passed Proposition 215 several years ago, the implementation of legal Medical Marijuana has been left to local jurisdictions. As some county governments and county law enforcement (including Riverside County) have refused to satisfactorily address this important medical and law enforcement issue, City municipalities across the state have been forced to adopt local Medical Marijuana ordinances to protect both ailing patients and police from improper conduct. Proposition 215 is the law in California and Medical Marijuana is legal. It is improper, if not illegal, for individual Palm Springs police officers to be put in the position of using their personal discretion and deciding in the field, on a case-by-case, moment-by-moment basis about what is legal or not legal about Medical Marijuana in every individual patient or situation they may encounter. This is currently the status quo in Palm Springs for both Medical Marijuana patients and local police and presents an unsatisfactory situation of tension in the community. People being treated for illness need to focus on wellness, not on whether their medicine will lead to undue police scrutiny, police home invasion, arrest, insurmountable legal costs, jail time or prison, or the brutal effects of an asset forfeiture process. Legal cultivation and the use of Marijuana for medicinal purposes is a fact of life in California for untold numbers of valid patients. Medicinal use of this multi-purpose healing plant is growing, not going away. For some twenty years now I have watched as scores of friends, family, loved ones, and neighbors have had to deal with sickness and death from AIDS and different forms of cancer. Almost without exception, each has used Medical Marijuana at some point to help ease the effects of their illness or extend the quality of their lives. Seriously ill people are unable to grow their own Medical Marijuana even if it is now legal to do so. So where are these patients to procure their medicine, in secret or somewhere safe and legal? The inappropriate religious zealots in our Country such as John Ashcroft use our federal tax dollars to buy expensive TV ads, Internet sites, and print media ads to promote the preposterous idea that somehow the purchase of Medical Marijuana supports ;terrorism. All this while at the same time, they have stepped up the Federal IDEA war against California's patients for growing, distributing, and consuming legal Medical Marijuana medicine in our State. While Californians remain their primary target of these hypocrites, they have created the same legal havoc in the eight other states where voters have legalized Marijuana for medicinal purposes. It is more important now than ever before for the Palm Springs City Council to follow the early lead of so many other California cities and exhibit leadership on this issue that is at a crisis1evel in our City, County and State. Medical doctors are under constant threat of having medical licenses jeopardized for prescribing Medical Marijuana recommendations to patients. Many, if not most, health care organizations and professionals support the use of Medical Marijuana and will only discuss the need for municipal action for guidelines "off the record." They are prevented from doing so publicly because of threats of cuts in Federal Aid to their heath care programs. In the same regard, hundreds and hundreds of individual Marijuana Medicine patients fear the public exposure of speaking out due to uncertain Naw enforcement tactics, arb4rary prosecutions, and the potential disruption and risk to their health, family, home, employment, and lives. They may now fear to speak out publicly, but be assured that they and their supporters do vote as Proposition 215 has long demonstrated. Now is the time for Palm Springs move ahead ,and treat Medical Marijuana issues as real medical issues of our citizens rather than continuing to relegate them solely to the quagmire of unguided law enforcement. There is no substitute for your leadership on this important issue. Please do your part to integrate Proposition 215 with compassion and common sense irto the Palm Springs community. Act now to establish a Medical Marijuana citizen's task force. James Evans 1268 E. Ramon Road Unit 10 Palm Springs, CA 92264-7760