Last week the Department of Justice issued new guidelines to U.S. Attorneys concerning investigations and prosecutions in states that have authorized the use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes.  These guidelines are a positive step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to ensure real and lasting protection for patients and their providers in medical cannabis states.  In particular, individuals accused of violating federal marijuana laws must be permitted to use evidence in federal court to demonstrate that their use of medical marijuana followed state law and was used to alleviate suffering. To that end, U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-CA), and a bipartisan group of his colleagues, re-introduced the “Truth in Trials” bill in the U.S. House of Representatives today.

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Today’s Washington Post features another great article on the subject of medical marijuana.  It’s a particularly good article in that it features an interview with Dr. Piomelli, a professor of pharmacology who for the past 10 years has lead a research project for the National Institutes of Health concerning the the impact of marijuana and other drugs on the brain.

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Allison Margolin

(This is a guest blog by Allison B. Margolin, Esq.)

As the Obama administration attempts to steer federal agents away from prosecuting marijuana dispensaries, the LA District Attorney and City Attorney’s Office are attempting to undermine that shift by articulating a deceitfully narrow view of the state law.

Despite reports of trillion dollar deficits nationally and a collapsing state economy, District Attorney Steve Cooley says his office is committed to closing down revenue-generating medical marijuana dispensaries and the LA district attorney’s office continues to take prisoners of war in their fight against safe access to medical marijuana.

In doing so, LA City is threatening to plunge the state’s economy into further collapse by taking potential tax revenues that could be going to the state treasury. Moreover, the City’s position threatens to generate crime by forcing the huge demand for marijuana back to the street. If the free market has allowed for the proliferation of dispensaries, that demand is not going away. The avenue for its fulfillment will simply change and could go from safe to entrenched in the poly-drug trafficking black market economy.
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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.

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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.
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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 Ukiah Daily Journal:

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman has been ordered to give back 32 marijuana hash patties to two Redwood Valley defendants …  Henderson and Sutherland will receive 32 patties because the legal amount for a marijuana patient to have at the time of the seizure was eight ounces, according to the order, and four doctors’ recommendations were admitted as evidence in the case.