The week started off with a bang, as Americans for Safe Access (ASA) Chief Counsel Joe Elford threatened to file a lawsuit against Los Angeles if the city banned medical marijuana “sales.” The threat was in response to public statements made by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich that over-the-counter sales of medical marijuana are illegal under state law. Trutanich had been urging the Los Angeles City Council to adopt his proposed ordinance banning over-the-counter sales.

ASA is confident that Trutanich has a flawed interpretation of state law. The Medical Marijuana Program Act, landmark court decisions, California Attorney General guidelines, and a sales tax policy by the State Board of Equalization provide ample evidence that medical marijuana sales are legal. So, ASA decided to fight Trutanich using his own public relations strategy. The Friday before ASA threatened to file suit against the City of Los Angeles, Elford went on Air Talk, broadcast by KPCC, the NPR affiliate, to debate the issue of sales with Special Assistant City Attorney David Berger. (more…)

U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello expressed his desire yesterday for medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco to be run as “communes” rather than as “candy stores.” Russoniello’s reference to “candy stores” is confusing enough, but the Bush-appointed federal prosecutor’s shift from conservative free-market thinking to Marxist communism was a surprise to many in the medical marijuana movement, not to mention the public at large. (more…)

Last week, I spoke to the San Diego Medical Marijuana Task Force about their efforts to create sensible regulations for medical cannabis dispensing collectives and cooperatives in the city. The task force is charged with making recommendations to the City Council, which will use their input to craft an ordinance. Input from stakeholders early in the process is important, and San Diego ASA is working with allies to be sure patients’ voices help shape the city’s policy.

I spoke to the task force about the benefits of regulations, and cautioned them not to be misled by faulty legal analysis aimed at rolling back safe access.

Improving local regulations is a high priority for ASA’s California campaign. We must work diligently in cities and counties to be sure that local ordinances fulfill the voters’ mandate in Proposition 215 – “…To encourage the federal and state governments to implement a plan for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana.”

From “Obama administration won’t prosecute where medical marijuana is legal” in today’s WaPo:

Americans for Safe Access, a group that promotes medical marijuana reform nationwide, said that during the Bush administration, more than 200 federal raids occurred in California alone.

From “A federal about-face on medical marijuana” in today’s Los Angeles Times:

Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access, called the new guidelines an important step toward a comprehensive national policy on medical marijuana because they will allow states to implement their own laws without interference from the federal government.

“This is a huge victory for medical-marijuana patients,” said Sherer, whose group plays a leading role in nationwide medical-marijuana advocacy. “This indicates that President Obama intends to keep his promise … and represents a significant departure from the policies of the Bush administration.”

ASA is encouraged to learn that the Obama Administration has taken a major step forward in defining its policy on medical cannabis today, when the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memo giving new instructions to federal prosecutors and law enforcement.  This memo has been expected since we learned that the Committee report to accompany the Justice appropriations legislation would include specific language requiring a written policy.

(more…)

Jerry Brown

A spokesperson for California Attorney General Jerry Brown told the New York Times that the nonprofit sales of medical cannabis in storefront patients’ collectives are legal. The Attorney General is speaking up in response to a growing controversy about how to regulate hundreds of collectives and cooperatives in Los Angeles. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich told City Councilmembers in September that storefront collectives and nonprofit sales of cannabis are illegal, despite guidelines issued by the Attorney General last year that indicate otherwise.

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(This is a guest blog by Resipsa from the Landa Prison Outreach Project)

Stephanie Landa

Nearly three years ago, I drove veteran medical marijuana cultivator and activist Stephanie Landa to San Francisco to surrender herself to federal authorities. Her attorney, Allison Margolin, had managed to stall the court for an extraordinarily long time, but Stephanie’s luck had run out, and it she’d been ordered to present herself at the federal building to begin a 41-month sentence.

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) had really been there for Stephanie. Among other things, they helped make her last press conference a great success. Executive Director Steph Sheer and California Director Don Duncan personally walked her through the jailhouse door. I was crying and distraught. But I did manage to promise my friend that I would be there for her while she was inside and I would drive her home, just as I had driven her to the jail.

Keeping my promise to bring her home involved detailed negotiations with the prison and three pages of instructions. But in the end, the warden himself signed off on the paperwork.
(more…)

Last Friday, a day after Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and District Attorney Steve Cooley attended a law enforcement training hosted by the California Narcotic Officers Association (CNOA) on the “eradication” of medical marijuana dispensaries, both officials declared a war on safe, affordable access to this therapeutic substance. In multiple newspapers, Trutanich and Cooley flagrantly stated their opinion that almost all dispensaries in Los Angeles are operating illegally, in violation of state law. Not only did these local prosecutors fail to provide any evidence of such violations, making unfounded accusations instead, but they have also ignored (or, more appropriately, rebuffed) the California Attorney General guidelines on this matter. (more…)

From the Associated Press:

SEATTLE — In one corner of Washington state, a 62-year-old rheumatoid arthritis patient could face more than eight years in prison for growing marijuana for himself and three others. In Seattle, meanwhile, a collection of grow operations serves 2,000 people with little interference from police…

…Unlike some states, Washington requires patients to grow marijuana themselves or designate a caregiver to grow it for them. For many, that’s unrealistic: They’re too sick to grow cannabis themselves and don’t have the thousands of dollars it can cost for a caregiver to set up a proper growing operation.