San Diego County supervisors enacted a 45-day ban on new medical marijuana facilities on Wednesday, disrupting plans for eight dispensaries and cultivation sites that had recently applied for permits to open in unincorporated parts of the county. During the temporary moratorium, supervisors and county staff will consider new regulations or a ban on the facilities. The hiatus leaves San Diego city as the only jurisdiction within the county that allows medical marijuana collectives to apply for the various approvals needed to operate a legal dispensary or cultivation site. [continues 449 words]
Proposal Would Violate Patient Privacy Rules, Activists Say The county's proposed medical marijuana dispensary ordinance would violate patient privacy laws because it opens patient lists and other records to law enforcement, medical marijuana advocates and civil rights groups say. County officials released a draft of the document in March. It was heavily criticized by patient advocacy groups and others, including Americans for Safe Access, the Drug Policy Alliance and the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego. Since the criticisms started to pour in, county officials have refused to answer questions about the ordinance, including whether any medical professionals helped draft it. [continues 903 words]
Zoning Laws May Limit Dispensaries The next front in San Diego County's battle over medical marijuana may be local zoning law as jurisdictions throughout the region begin to ban dispensaries. But experts say the prohibitions might face constitutional questions or other issues. "If a city would allow a drugstore to operate, but not a medical marijuana dispensary, someone could challenge that and say, 'What's the difference?'?" said San Diego land-use attorney Robin Munro. The county fought a long legal battle over medical pot, which was allowed under state Proposition 215 in 1996 but banned by federal law. [continues 828 words]
Supervisors Also Will Consider Banning Dispensaries San Diego County could begin accepting applications for medical marijuana ID cards by July 6 if the Board of Supervisors next week approves a plan to charge up to $166 for each card. The county fought the state's medical marijuana law for years until the case hit a legal dead end last month, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from San Diego and San Bernardino counties. If the plan is approved at Tuesday's meeting, the county will beginning the process of implementing the state law. [continues 534 words]
With the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal last week to consider San Diego County's lawsuit against state medical-marijuana laws, local officials appear poised to begin offering identification cards to qualified patients. The government-issued ID will help protect patients, activists say, but without a law enforcement-approved way to distribute medical marijuana, sick and dying people still face the threat of arrest and prosecution. Not only that, but a growing number of storefront medical-marijuana dispensaries in San Diego will likely test the tolerance that police and prosecutors have for providers of the drug. [continues 689 words]
Justices turn down appeals from San Diego and San Bernardino counties seeking to throw out the state's 13-year-old medical marijuana law. The Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals from two hold-out counties in Southern California that objected to the state's 13-year-old medical marijuana law and claimed it should be struck down as violating the federal drug control act. Without comment, the court turned down the pair of appeals. The action probably will clear the way for patients in San Diego and San Bernardino counties to seek county-issued identification cards that show they are eligible to possess and use marijuana. [continues 506 words]
San Bernardino County residents previously unable to lawfully purchase marijuana for medicinal uses should soon be able to do so after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear challenges to the state's medical marijuana law. "The Supreme Court is the end of the road," said Allen Hopper, litigation director for the American Civil Liberties Union's Drug Law Reform Project. "There is no additional legal challenge left for the counties." San Bernardino and San Diego counties had sued in San Diego County Superior Court three years ago contending that federal drug law trumps California law, therefore making the possession of marijuana in this state -- for medical or any other use -- illegal. [continues 633 words]
SAN FRANCISCO -- California's medical marijuana law survived its most serious legal challenge Monday as the U.S. Supreme Court denied appeals by two counties that argued they were being forced to condone violations of federal drug laws. The justices, without comment, denied a hearing to officials from San Diego and San Bernardino counties who challenged Proposition 215, an initiative approved by state voters in 1996 that became a model for laws in 12 other states. It allows patients to use marijuana for medical conditions with their doctor's recommendation. [continues 382 words]
Out of Appeals, County Plans to Issue ID Cards The U.S. Supreme Court ended San Diego County's three-year legal battle against California's medical marijuana law yesterday by declining to hear the county's last appeal. The move effectively means the county will soon begin issuing identification cards for medical marijuana users who want them. That is required under a state law passed in 2004 that San Diego and San Bernardino counties have resisted. At its June 16 meeting, the five-member Board of Supervisors will consider a recommendation to issue the cards, said Senior Deputy County Counsel Thomas Bunton, who led the legal battle that one opponent yesterday called "quixotic." [continues 803 words]
County Feud With State Marijuana Law Costly Among the list of most-wasteful government expenses at a time of fiscal crisis must be San Diego County taking its fight against the state's medical marijuana law to the U.S. Supreme Court. Few things get us as riled as a blatant waste of taxpayer money; especially when it is used to fight the will of the people. And it seems all the more senseless at a time when state and local governments are cash-poor. [continues 253 words]
San Diego County filed papers this week asking the U.S. Supreme Court to erase California's medical marijuana law, arguing that federal prohibitions outlawing the substance supersede California's law allowing sick people to use it. The county is asking the nation's highest court to overturn a state appellate court's July decision upholding the voter-approved law legalizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes. "You have a conflict here between federal and state law, and we are in the middle," 5th District Supervisor Bill Horn said Friday. "What we have been asking all along is which takes precedence here. We will take it as far as we can take it and get a definitive answer." [continues 416 words]
Board Wants to Resolve State-Federal Conflict Despite batting .000 against a lineup of lawyers and judges across California, San Diego County is pressing its long-shot lawsuit against state medical marijuana laws toward the U.S. Supreme Court. The Board of Supervisors voted to petition the nation's top court even before the California Supreme Court declined Oct. 16 to hear the county's argument that the state laws should be overturned. For nearly three years, the supervisors have persisted in their legal fight rather than direct county health officials to issue identification cards to qualified medical marijuana patients as required by state law. [continues 990 words]
SAN FRANCISCO -- The state Supreme Court turned back a challenge to California's medical marijuana law Thursday from two counties that said they were being forced to condone federal drug-law violations by state-approved pot users. San Diego and San Bernardino county officials had sued to overturn Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative that legalized medical marijuana, and a more recent law that required them to issue identification cards to users who had a doctor's recommendation. The justices unanimously denied review of an appellate decision in July that concluded California was free to decide whether to punish drug users under its own laws, despite the federal ban on marijuana. [continues 313 words]
State High Court Won't Hear Case The California Supreme Court yesterday declined to consider the latest appeal from San Diego County in its years-long effort to resist state medical marijuana laws. "This is a resounding victory for seriously ill Californians and for California voters," said Adam Wolf of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is co-defending the case along with the state Attorney General's Office and the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access. "It's an affirmation of the legitimacy of state medical marijuana laws." [continues 283 words]
As California organizer for the Marijuana Policy Project, thank you for finally seeing the futility of San Diego County's medical marijuana challenge and urging the Board of Supervisors to hang it up, once and for all ("In brief/Rx marijuana; discovering a workout pill," Editorial, Aug. 2). It is unfortunate that the Board of Supervisors didn't heed the Union-Tribune's advice. In a time of staggering budget deficits in California, continuing this frivolous lawsuit at the expense of taxpayers (who are paying for the lawyers on both sides) amounts to nothing less than fiscal insanity. [continues 87 words]
Court Backs ID-Card Law on Medical Marijuana San Diego County has lost its latest court fight against a state law requiring counties to issue government identification to qualified medical marijuana patients. In a 39-page ruling yesterday, the 4th District Court of Appeal said San Diego and San Bernardino counties have no legal authority to resist the identification card program. The counties had argued that issuing government identification to medical marijuana patients would violate federal drug laws that categorize marijuana as one of the most dangerous known drugs. [continues 462 words]
SAN DIEGO -- Attorneys for San Diego and San Bernardino counties argued in court Tuesday that the state's voter-approved medical marijuana law should be overturned because it conflicts with federal drug laws. Attorneys for patients, the American Civil Liberties Union and the state attorney general's office disagreed, saying the California law does not conflict with federal drug laws because patients do not intend to use the drug illegally. The hearing before the 4th District Court of Appeal was part of an effort by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to invalidate the law, which gives patients access to medical marijuana. The courtroom was packed with media and observers from both sides of the issue. [continues 461 words]
Nineteen months after a judge rejected San Diego County's lawsuit against the state of California seeking to overturn medical marijuana laws, government lawyers are returning to court to argue their appeals. In a case being watched closely by counties around the state, oral arguments are scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday in a 4th District Court of Appeal courtroom in downtown San Diego. The panel of judges is not expected to issue an immediate ruling. Instead, a decision likely will be handed down sometime this summer. [continues 558 words]
City Files Amicus Brief for Medical ID Cards In the legal tug of war between the county and state over medical marijuana, the city of San Diego has sided with Sacramento and voters. Lawyers from the City Attorney's Office have filed an amicus brief in the lawsuit between San Diego County and the state Department of Justice. County supervisors hope a panel of appellate judges will relieve them of their obligation under state law to issue identification cards to qualified patients. [continues 661 words]
Orange County supervisors should honor voters' wishes. Californians want doctors to be able to prescribe marijuana to patients who would benefit from it, but federal law makes it illegal to sell or possess it. On Tuesday, Orange County supervisors will decide what to do about the conflict. It's easy to argue this one either way, since there is no question that some people abuse the privilege and turn medical marijuana into the makings of pot parties. But there is no question either than some sick people, desperate for relief from pain or nausea, find no better medication than marijuana, and they should have it. That benefit far outweighs any disadvantages. [continues 188 words]
