Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jun 2002
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Holly J. Wolcott, Times Staff Writer
Note: Times staff writer Catherine Saillant contributed to this report.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

MEDICINAL POT POLICY CRITICIZED BY SUPERVISORS

Law Enforcement: Board Fumes That It Wasn't Consulted When Guidelines Were 
Set In March. Police Agencies Say That Wasn't Required.

Ventura County supervisors criticized law enforcement leaders Tuesday for 
quietly setting a standard for medicinal marijuana possession without 
consulting local health officials, patients or other experts.

Calling the guidelines narrow and incomplete, supervisors want police 
officials who drafted the guidelines to reconvene and gather more expert 
opinions on the issue.

"I was never called on this," Supervisor John K. Flynn said during the 
board's regular weekly meeting. "I'm really concerned." While the board has 
no authority over the multi-agency policy adopted in late March, Flynn and 
other supervisors believe they should have been consulted as the guidelines 
were being drafted and that the process should have been more open to the 
public.

The policy came to light last month when a chronically ill Ventura man 
complained to the board that police officers had confiscated most of his 
plants despite his written doctor's recommendation to smoke marijuana, as 
permitted under Proposition 215.

In response to a request by Flynn, the county counsel's office delivered a 
packet of information to the supervisors detailing the history of the new 
guidelines, which allow a patient with a doctor's note to possess six 
plants of any size or one pound of dried marijuana.

Law enforcement officials said they spent two years researching the 
policies of counties across the state and also studied written testimony 
and evidence from patients and experts in science, law and medicine. The 
policy was approved by the Sheriff's Department, the district attorney's 
office and the chiefs of the county's five independent police departments.

"We looked at feedback from all sides of this issue," Sheriff Bob Brooks 
said in an interview Tuesday. "Our policy is a very liberal understanding 
of the need for the medicinal use of marijuana."

Brooks added that numerous county law enforcement policies are made 
frequently without notifying the board.

"The sheriff does not need board approval of our arrest policies and 
practices," Brooks said, adding that he would agree to meet with county 
department leaders and patients but did not expect specifics of the 
marijuana policy to change.

Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez, one of five area police chiefs who approved 
the guidelines, concurred with Brooks.

"I don't think we've made a decision in a vacuum. A number of policies in 
the state were consulted to formulate this," Lopez said.

About 10 people addressed the board Tuesday on the issue, most notably Jay 
Cavanaugh, a former member of the state board of pharmacies who now runs 
the American Alliance for Medical Cannabis.

"It surprised me to hear a number of supervisors comment about not having 
been consulted," said Cavanaugh, who has a doctorate in biochemistry and 
immunology.

Cavanaugh told supervisors that possession guidelines need to take into 
account that a patient who plants marijuana seeds won't know if the plants 
are male or female until after they have spouted. This is significant 
because only female plants produce smokable buds, he said.

Additionally, Cavanaugh challenged a police contention that most marijuana 
plants yield up to a pound of smokable pot, saying a plant will sometimes 
only produce an ounce.

"This policy has a host of assumptions--that you will never have any males, 
that all the plants will mature, that you won't have any pest problems and 
that you won't lose anything," Cavanaugh said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom