Growers, Suppliers Would Qualify for Acquittal Reacting to the latest wave of federal marijuana prosecutions and raids, a California congressman announced legislation Wednesday that would keep medical marijuana growers and suppliers out of federal prison. The U.S. Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration has "no respect for the laws we here in California have established to allow patients to live pain-free lives," said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. Farr's bill would apply to California and seven other states that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes. Anyone charged in those states with growing, transporting or distributing marijuana, in violation of federal law, would qualify for an acquittal by proving that the marijuana was intended solely as medicine. [continues 454 words]
Feds Ignore Cities' Laws, Advocates Say When the federal government charged prominent marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal with illegal cultivation, California's medical marijuana law proved useless as a shield. With Rosenthal now convicted and facing prison, and federal charges pending against other purveyors of medicinal pot, some advocates say it's time to strengthen the shield -- ideally, by putting the state government in charge, as either the overseer of marijuana distribution or the official supplier. "You need the state to step in before the feds are going to blink," Dave Fratello, spokesman for the Campaign for New Drug Policies, said Wednesday. [continues 731 words]
Feds Score Big Victory Against California Law A federal jury in San Francisco found Ed Rosenthal, one of the nation's most prominent marijuana advocates, guilty Friday of felony conspiracy and cultivation charges -- a triumph for federal prosecutors seeking to override California's endorsement of pot as medicine. Jurors deliberated less than a day before finding the 58-year-old Oakland resident -- a columnist for High Times and Cannabis Culture magazines and author of more than a dozen books -- guilty of all three felonies charged. Rosenthal faces a minimum of five years in prison. [continues 663 words]
References To Medical Uses Quickly Squelched In Federal Court The Bay Area's first federal medical marijuana trial ended Thursday with a bizarre touch that symbolized the entire case: The judge took over questioning of a defense witness to make sure he didn't refer to the medical use of marijuana. It started when Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley mentioned that he had met defendant Ed Rosenthal "in the context of Proposition 215," the 1996 California medical marijuana initiative. Without prompting from the prosecutor, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer [continues 737 words]
Ruling Says Doctors Can Recommend Pot A federal appeals court said Tuesday the federal government cannot punish California doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients. The ruling by the three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was a rare legal victory for medical marijuana advocates and was hailed as a significant step toward preserving California's landmark medical marijuana law, which has been continually challenged by the U. S. Justice Department since its adoption in 1996. [continues 840 words]
Patients Protest U.S. Raids On Supplies Medical marijuana patients and advocates held protests in San Francisco and several other cities Monday against the latest federal raids on their supplies. Outside the federal court building in San Francisco, about 30 demonstrators chanted, "We're patients, not criminals," and carried "Wanted" posters for President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson. "This is a life-and-death issue," said Randi Webster of San Francisco, who uses medical marijuana to ease pain from arthritis and a degenerative condition in her knees, and hobbled along the march on a brace. "The federal government doesn't see it that way. They think we're drug pushers and terrorists." [continues 277 words]
Reversals Of Fortune Ninth Circuit's Gets A Bad Rap As Wacky, Rogue Court There they go again. The court that ruled the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional June 26, because schoolchildren are required to say "one nation under God," is the same Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that was overruled 27 out of 28 times by the Supreme Court in 1996-97. It's the same San Francisco court that has been overruled unanimously when it declared that terminally ill patients had a constitutional right to die and that patients with a medical necessity for marijuana could use it without violating federal law. [continues 1084 words]
A CIA Mickey -- Lawsuit Claims LSD Was Put In Veteran's Drink In 1957 Until the night of an office Christmas party in 1957, Wayne Ritchie was a Marine Corps veteran, a deputy U.S. marshal and a solid citizen. Overcome by what he later described as depression and a delusion that everyone had turned against him, he tried to hold up a bar that night in San Francisco's Fillmore District. Spared a prison sentence, Ritchie quit his job in disgrace, spent years fighting off suicidal urges and for more than three decades lived with guilt and self-contempt -- until a 1999 newspaper article propelled him into federal court with a lawsuit against the U.S. government that could soon go to trial. [continues 1369 words]
A Santa Rosa medical marijuana club reportedly halted operations Thursday as its owner and another man appeared in court on drug charges in the aftermath of the latest federal raid on a California marijuana provider. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents searched the Aiko Compassion Center on West College Avenue on Wednesday. They then arrested Daniel H. Nelson, identified by a DEA agent as the owner, and Edward M. Bierling of Santa Rosa, described by his lawyer as a patient. Both men appeared before a federal magistrate in San Francisco on charges of cultivating more than 100 marijuana plants, charges that carry a mandatory prison sentence of at least five years. Nelson is also charged with maintaining a place where marijuana was cultivated. Both were released on bond. [continues 157 words]
Appellate Ruling Applies To 9 Western States, Territories If you're a Rastafarian who considers marijuana holy, it's legal to light up in Guam -- and maybe in any national park on the West Coast. At least that seemed to be the conclusion of a federal appeals court in San Francisco, which said Tuesday that a 1993 religious-freedom law puts limits on prosecutions in the "federal realm" -- specifically in a U.S. territory like Guam, or potentially within any other federal property. [continues 447 words]
Judge Backs Federal Effort To Close Them After a loss in the U.S. Supreme Court, advocates for medical marijuana suffered another setback Friday when a judge rejected constitutional challenges to the federal government's campaign to shut down Northern California pot clubs. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer snuffed efforts by marijuana dispensaries in Oakland and Fairfax to mount new defenses against the Justice Department's enforcement of federal drug laws. The Supreme Court upheld the shutdown of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative last year, ruling that the federal ban on marijuana did not exempt cases of medical necessity. The court did not rule on other issues, prompting the clubs' return to Breyer's San Francisco court two weeks ago. [continues 262 words]
Federal Government Didn't Violate States' Rights, Ruling Says In another setback for medical marijuana advocates, a federal judge ruled today that the federal government didn't violate states' rights or individual liberties by shutting down Northern California marijuana dispensaries. The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, joined by a Marin County marijuana club, launched a constitutional challenge after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that federal drug laws contained no exemption for cases of medical necessity. But U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the federal government has the constitutional authority to regulate drug activity, even if it takes place entirely within a state's boundaries. He also said the clubs had no legal standing to assert the constitutional rights of individuals who obtain marijuana from them. [continues 262 words]
Why Is Federal Government Into This, He Asks A federal appeals court was openly skeptical yesterday about the federal government's attempt to punish California doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients. "Why is the federal government getting into this?" asked Judge Alex Kozinski, historically the most conservative of the three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals panel. "Why on earth does an administration that's committed to the concept of federalism . . . want to go to this length to put doctors in jail for doing something that's perfectly legal under state law?" [continues 584 words]
Drugs Found When Bag Punctured Customs agents were entitled to puncture an airline passenger's bag and examine the contents after his actions and an X-ray of the bag aroused their suspicions, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. In upholding the passenger's drug conviction and 20-year sentence, the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco set guidelines for "routine" luggage searches -- which can be conducted without evidence of wrongdoing. The ruling appeared to pose no obstacle to the screening required by the airline security law signed by President Bush last fall. [continues 362 words]
The Supreme Court unanimously allowed housing authorities in Oakland last week to evict low-income tenants for drug activity they knew nothing about. A year ago, the court -- in another unanimous ruling, also from Oakland -- barred distribution of medical marijuana to seriously ill patients. The justices also appear ready to expand drug testing of students not suspected of drug use. Is the court moving to the front ranks of the war on drugs? Don't jump to conclusions, say legal analysts who have studied recent cases and can cite evidence to the contrary. [continues 869 words]
U.S. Appeals Court Decision May Reduce Terms For 340 Inmates In the latest blow to California's "three strikes" law, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that it is unconstitutional to sentence a felon to 25 years to life for shoplifting. Yesterday's unanimous ruling held that even a record of violence doesn't justify a life term for a minor crime that is punished much less severely in all other states. The sentences imposed on Earnest Bray Jr. and Richard Napoleon Brown "are grossly disproportionate to their respective crimes -- stealing three videotapes and a steering wheel alarm -- even in light of their criminal records," wrote Judge Marsha Berzon of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco. [continues 522 words]
To the immense relief of prosecutors in nine Western states, a federal appeals court removed a cloud yesterday that it had cast five months ago over a federal drug sentencing law. The law, in effect since 1984, is used regularly in federal prosecutions and allows drug sentences to be lengthened by many years based on the amount of narcotics involved. One application is to increase the maximum sentence for selling drugs, normally 20 years, to life in prison if large quantities were sold. [continues 363 words]
Dennis Peron Caught With Joint The godfather of medical marijuana in California didn't get much respect last week in Cedar City, Utah, where police caught him smoking a joint in his motel room. Facing a felony charge of possessing marijuana for distribution, Dennis Peron said yesterday it was time that Utah had a law like California's Proposition 215, which he drafted in 1996. "I'm going to go back and fight it and going to try to change the state law, " he said. "It's going to be a tough nut to crack, but it's not impossible." [continues 273 words]
Attorney General's Actions Show Shift In White House Policy Attorney General John Ashcroft is an ardent advocate of states' rights, as he demonstrated in 1998 when he praised a pro-Confederacy magazine for defending "Southern patriots" like Jefferson Davis. His boss, President Bush, told campaign audiences last year that the federal government was too big and too active outside its proper sphere -- and even suggested that states should decide whether to legalize medical marijuana. But Ashcroft's actions toward doctors in Oregon and toward medical marijuana suppliers and physicians in California have led some analysts to question the administration's devotion to curbing the powers of the federal government. [continues 820 words]
Mandate For Treatment Given Maximum Effect The first appellate court to consider California's voter-approved overhaul of drug sentencing ruled yesterday that people sentenced after July 1 for possessing drugs are entitled to treatment instead of jail. In a decision that affects hundreds or even thousands of defendants statewide, a three-judge Court of Appeal panel in Los Angeles said Proposition 36 applied to everyone waiting to be sentenced when it took effect in July, no matter when they committed their crimes. [continues 329 words]
