BROWN'S RULES ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE DrugSense FOCUS Alert #384 - Wednesday, 27 August 2008 Monday California Attorney General Jerry Brown issued "Guidelines for the Security and Non-Diversion of Marijuana Grown for Medical Use" that may be read at http://drugsense.org/url/kKMJR2lu Today California's two largest newspapers printed opinions about the guidelines, below. Both are worthy targets for letters to the editor. Newspaper clippings about the guidelines appear, and will be added in the days ahead, to the top of this list: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Jerry+Brown You may use the newspaper's webform at http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo to send letters or email them to Pubdate: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 Source: Los Angeles Times (CA) Section: Editorials Copyright: 2008 Los Angeles Times BROWN'S RULES ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA New Guidelines on Legal Pot Use Are a Welcome Shield for Californians With Medical Needs. They're more than a decade overdue, but the guidelines on medical marijuana issued this week by California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown could finally help divide the gray area in which the state's growers and dispensers operate into clearer shades of black and white. Brown's 11-page directive is aimed at giving police the ability to distinguish between criminals and legitimate medical marijuana sellers under state law, as well as protecting patients from arrest. It won't stop federal drug enforcement agents from raiding law-abiding dispensaries and prosecuting innocent business owners whenever they see fit, but it will make such raids harder to justify -- and might ramp up the pressure for more sensible federal marijuana policies. When California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 215 in 1996, allowing the sale and use of marijuana for people with demonstrated medical needs, it set off a host of consequences both positive and negative. As voters intended, thousands of people suffering from AIDS, glaucoma and other serious ailments now have access to a safe, legitimate treatment. Yet as voters didn't intend, the state is now riddled with dispensaries that employ on-site doctors who will write a prescription to nearly anyone who walks through the door, while places such as Humboldt County have been invaded by criminal elements running underground grow houses to supply these middlemen. Most of the negative consequences can be attributed to the gap between state and federal marijuana laws. The fact that even sellers considered legitimate by the state can be prosecuted and ruined by federal agents encourages black-market dealers, who endanger their communities by ignoring fire codes, selling to healthy minors and fighting turf wars with other dealers. The centerpiece of Brown's directive is its insistence that medical marijuana sellers must operate as nonprofit collectives or cooperatives, and the marijuana they sell must be grown by state-certified patients or caregivers. That will empower municipal police to weed out the bad guys. Overall, Proposition 215 has done more good than harm. In addition to marijuana's medical benefits, its legitimate sale brings in $100 million a year in tax revenues, and even though it can be abused by users, it isn't demonstrably more dangerous to society than tobacco and alcohol. The state's new guidelines will help reduce the measure's harmful side effects, but the only long-term solution is for the feds to stop the medical marijuana raids and leave California law enforcement to California officers. Note: Below is the lead section of a longer column. Contact: Pubdate: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Column: Matier & Ross Copyright: 2008 Hearst Communications Inc. Authors: Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross JERRY BROWN GETS TOUGH ON MEDICAL POT CLUBS California Attorney General Jerry Brown has ordered a crackdown on medical pot clubs that are selling the drug for big profits. The move puts the state a bit more in line with the feds in dealing with the explosion of questionable marijuana dispensaries since the passage of Proposition 215 more than a decade ago. The first target was Today's Health Care club in Northridge (Los Angeles County), which agents from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement raided over the weekend. The club owner and an alleged middleman were booked on drug-dealing charges. Brown said Tuesday he would "not be surprised" to see similar raids here in the Bay Area. "The voters wanted medical marijuana dispensaries to be used for seriously ill patients and their caregivers - not as million-dollar businesses," Brown said. In recent years, pot club raids have been conducted mainly by federal authorities who don't recognize Prop. 215, the initiative California voters passed in 1996 to let patients use cannabis to treat what ailed them. Although medical marijuana is still illegal under federal law, the feds say many of their targets were actually sham outfits that were dealing marijuana for, shall we say, nonmedicinal uses. This week, Brown issued an 11-page directive laying out guidelines that medical marijuana cooperatives must follow to comply with Prop. 215. Among them: Sell only to legitimate patients. Operate as nonprofits. Buy pot only from fellow cooperative members at prices that cover cost, as opposed to professional growers out for big bucks. "We are not out to harass legitimate clubs," Brown said. "The targets are those clubs that are part of a larger criminal operation where medical marijuana winds up being sold on the street and contributing to crime and violence." Some medical marijuana dispensers, concerned that thuggish dope dealers are giving their business a bad name, welcomed Brown's guidelines - and the state crackdown. "It's something many activists have been looking for since the medical marijuana law passed," said Kevin Reed of the Green Cross marijuana collective in San Francisco. He said his outfit had nothing to fear. "We are a nonprofit," Reed said. "We only sell to patients. We only get our pot in small quantities from patients who grow it and sell it on consignment. "We've been on the front page of every major newspaper in the nation and have never been bothered by the feds, because we are an open book," Reed said. As for how many of San Francisco's 26 pot clubs might find themselves in hot water, Reed said: "I expect about 10 will not be with us within a year." 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