Pubdate: Mon, 11 Feb 2002
Source: Santa Cruz County Sentinel (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Santa Cruz County Sentinel Publishers Co.
Contact:  http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/394
Author: Jeanene Harlick

MEDICAL POT USERS DEMAND BETTER LAWS

At first blush, it seems illogical: Medical marijuana advocates want more 
county regulations for the legal use of marijuana.

Nonetheless, some pot proponents are demanding the county be more specific 
about how much marijuana people can grow or carry for medical purposes.

Though many counties have adopted possession guidelines for medical 
marijuana since passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, Santa Cruz County has 
not. While the county's handling of the issue is considered progressive, 
the Sheriff's Office deals with arrests on a case-by-case basis, making 
judgment calls about whether a person is growing more plants than an 
illness demands.

Andrea Tischler, a medical marijuana advocate and co-owner of the 
Compassion Flower Inn, a pot-themed bed and breakfast in downtown Santa 
Cruz, says the county's lack of guidelines turns police into doctors and 
forces the ill to live in fear.

"People who are sick do not need to have the added stress of wondering if 
they're going to be arrested for growing cannabis as a medicine," Tischler 
said. "How can a sheriff's deputy make a decision about whether 10 plants 
are too many for a patient? That is strictly the providence of the doctor 
and his patient."

Although it's almost impossible to calculate, Tischler estimates there are 
at least 2,000 people in the county who have doctors' recommendations for 
using marijuana.

Christina Adams, 29, learned she had multiple sclerosis when she was 9. A 
single mother of two, Adams says marijuana alleviates her muscle spasms and 
is critical for getting her through the day.

Adams can't get pot, however, because it's so expensive, and she can't find 
a caregiver to grow it for her because, without guidelines, county 
residents are too afraid to grow it, she said.

"No one's really sure how much they can grow, and they're fearful," she 
said. "The county has definitely worked with us, which has been good, but I 
would like to see a written and more structured policy."

When Adams cannot get marijuana, she is forced to take pain and spasticity 
pills that she says "mess with my head way more than marijuana." When pot 
is available, Adams uses it sparingly - two or three puffs in the morning 
and afternoon is all it takes to ease her symptoms, she said.

Tischler would like the county to adopt guidelines similar to the ones 
Sonoma County follows. In May, it adopted guidelines that allow patients to 
possess 3 pounds of processed marijuana per year. The patients or their 
caregivers are allowed to cultivate a canopy of marijuana up to 100 square 
feet in size.

A limit of 99 plants was established because 100 plants is the trigger 
point for federal sentencing.

The guidelines were written by the county's primary pot-advocacy group, the 
Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana.

Sonoma and Alameda counties are the only two in California that base limits 
on plant size rather than plant number. Humboldt County, for example, 
limits cultivation to 10 plants per person.

That's because, according to federal guidelines, plant or "canopy" size is 
the only way to accurately predict plant yield, said Doc Knapp, a 
spokesperson for the Sonoma group. Individual plants yield varying amounts 
depending on size and length of harvest.

Local attorney Ben Rice, who defends many of Santa Cruz County's medical 
marijuana patients, pointed to client Jeff Rodrigs as his proof that Santa 
Cruz's system is flawed.

In 1999, Capitola police confiscated the 10 plants Rodrigs was growing in 
his back yard. Rodrigs was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 10 years ago. 
Though the District Attorney's Office dropped the charges, Capitola police 
destroyed the plants, which had just reached maturity and were ready to 
harvest. Rodrigs' medicine for the year was gone, Rice said.

Rodrigs filed claims for $75,000 against both the city and county. The case 
is still in court.

Rice said even though county policy toward medical marijuana is 
progressive, there are deputies on the street who aren't.

According to Rodrigs, when he showed a doctor's prescription for medical 
marijuana to the head of the county's Marijuana Enforcement Team in August 
2000, the officer, sheriff's Sgt. Jim Hart, called that doctor a "quack." 
Hart, who is no longer head of the team, denied making the comment during 
testimony in March.

The testimony was for a case the county brought against Kim Kleiner. 
Officials said Kleiner's cultivation of 14 plants exceeded the amount he 
needed to treat his arthritis.

Kleiner had a prescription from Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld of Sausalito.

In his testimony, Hart said he is "skeptical" when he sees prescriptions 
from Schoenfeld, who writes prescriptions for many local medical marijuana 
users.

When asked in court if he personally believed marijuana had medical 
benefits, Hart said, "There's no medicinal or proven medicinal benefits. If 
it makes a person who's dying of cancer or some horrible disease, if it 
makes them feel better, I don't have a problem with that person smoking 
marijuana."

When Rice asked Hart if he thought marijuana could help a dying person 
medically, as opposed to psychologically, Hart testified, "I think any time 
you have to breathe in smoke for a medical benefit, that the negatives are 
going to outweigh the positives. It's been proven it breaks down the immune 
system and causes other problems for people that already have a deficiency 
with their immune system."

Hart said he read that information in "some article." He couldn't specify 
where.

"When you have that kind of attitude, it's really important you protect 
people who are bona fide so police won't take their medicine away," Rice 
said. "I've had elderly and very sick people who've gone through the trauma 
of having the cops show up."

Hart declined to comment Friday.

The Marijuana Enforcement Team investigates about 55 cases per year.

In the fall, county Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt asked the county Health 
Services Agency and the sheriff's and district attorney's offices to study 
whether the Sonoma group's guidelines would be good for Santa Cruz. The 
Sheriff's Office reported back to the board last week.

The verdict: Specific guidelines would only hurt the seriously ill. The 
report said every patient's needs differ. A seriously ill person may need 
to use pot heavily and regularly, while someone with a minor illness or 
occasionally recurring problem can get by with less.

Wormhoudt first thought Sonoma's guidelines made sense but changed her mind 
when she learned how complicated the issue is. She also worried strict 
guidelines would lead to more arrests.

"Right now if you have a doctor's prescription, people really are not 
getting arrested. I worry that if you said a person can have six plants, 
and a deputy came in and saw seven, the deputy would feel he had to arrest, 
where now there's much more discretion," Wormhoudt said.

"I think the Sheriff's Office is working pretty sensitively with providers 
and consumers of medical marijuana, and that this is really a situation 
where you could make things worse by trying to make them better."

The board approved the sheriff's recommendation.

Wormhoudt said the Sonoma group's guidelines might be good for a community 
where law enforcement is arresting people unnecessarily.

Knapp, of Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said that was the case 
there. Sonoma deputies were arresting many sick residents before the new 
guidelines were passed, he said. After their passage, the arrests not only 
stopped but the District Attorney's Office dropped all existing cases, 
Knapp said.
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