People v. Kelly
May 27th, 2008Posted by Joe Elford
I suspect this case is just a flash in the pan, but we shall see. People v. Kelly involves a patient who had 12 ounces of marijuana and the prosecutor successfully argued to the jury that his possession of the marijuana was illegal because he had exceeded the “caps” of SB 420. The Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District (L.A.) reversed because it found that SB 420′s limit of the amount of marijuana a patient may possess constitutes an unconstitutional amendment of Proposition 215. Right result, wrong reasoning.
While the SB 420 quantities would be an unconstitutional amendment of Proposition 215 if it limited the amount of marijuana a patient could possess, the SB 420 quantities are not “caps,” but are thresholds. This is what the California Supreme Court said in People v. Wright at page 20, so I’m surprised the Kelly court did not recognize this. As thresholds, rather than caps, the SB 420 quantities likely do not amount to an unconstitutional amendment of a voter-approved initiative.
Although I’d be surprised to see this case survive an appeal to the California Supreme Court, it is a positive result in that it demonstrates that another appellate court is willing to rule in favor of medical marijuana patients.
June 2nd, 2008 at 2:30 pm
The issue that People V. Kelly addressed wasn’t so much the limits, caps.
The issue before the court was does the legislature have the authority to amend an voter brought initiative. The ruling says that in fact the legislature, or any other body politic ( including cities and counties), can NOT Amend a voter brought initiative that does not have a clause for amendment.
Some quotes….
“It’s a major, major legal victory for the California medical marijuana movement,” said Alex Coolman, a San Francisco lawyer specializing in criminal appeals. ”
Susan B. Jordan, a noted Mendocino County attorney who opposes Measure B, agreed. Jordan said Proposition 215 when passed by voters defined the standard as “what’s medically necessary,” and deliberately avoided adopting any specific number. “The court rightly ruled that neither the legislature nor any other body politic gets to arbitrarily overrule what voters enact,” said Jordan.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
[...] — a blessing for some a nightmare for others — the California Supreme Court granted review of People v. Kelly, which held that the SB 420 quantities are “limits” on the amount of marijuana a qualified [...]
November 5th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
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