Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 18:41:49 -0700

Subject:CA: State's Pot Laws Provide Protection For Seriously Ill Patients Up TOC

Newshawk: Jane Marcus
Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jul 2002
Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Knight Ridder
Contact: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/contact_us/feedback_np2
Website: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/96

JUDGES: STATE'S POT LAWS PROVIDE PROTECTION FOR SERIOUSLY ILL PATIENTS

SAN FRANCISCO - In a victory for medical marijuana backers, state Supreme
Court justices unanimously agreed this morning that California law provides
some protection for serious ill patients who use the drug or doctors who
prescribe it.

While noting that drug laws enacted with the passage of Proposition 215 do
not provide absolute immunity from prosecution, the court also said
patients have a right to ask that marijuana charges be dismissed prior to
trial.

"This case makes it clear that we're going to treat marijuana the same as
prescription drug," said Santa Clara law professor Gerald Uelmen, who
argued the case. "I think it's a very significant victory for patients and
caregivers."

The justices pointed out that the decision does not conflict with a U.S.
Supreme Court released last year which denied medical marijuana patients
"necessity defense." The case decided today, they said, concerns state law,
while the case involving the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative was based
in federal drug laws.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said officials were reviewing
the decision this morning and declined to comment.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens

 
 


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web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 18:42:34 -0700

Subject:Canada: We should lighten up on pot smoking Up TOC

Newshawk: Canadian Media Awareness Project (http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/)
Source: Daily Courier, The (CN BC)
Page A10
Date: July 18, 2002
Website: http://www.theokanagan.net/
Address: 550 Doyle Ave., Kelowna, B.C. V1Y 7V1
Contact: ross.freake@ok.bc.ca
Copyright: 2002 The Okanagan Valley Group of Newspapers

                 Editorial: We should lighten up on pot smoking

There's no doubt that smoking marijuana is a health risk and a vice, but
possessing small amounts of the drug shouldn't result in a criminal record.

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon's proposed changes to Canada's drug laws are
on the money because prosecuting users is a waste of valuable police and
court time.

Cauchon is essentially hinting at the decriminalization of marijuana
possession, making it an offence punishable by a fine instead of a criminal
record.  A chunk of a user's wallet would still deter its use without the
legal hassle of hiring lawyers and being banned from entering the United
States.

At least 1.5 million Canadians smoke marijuana, according to the Canadian
Medical Association Journal.  A higher proportion than the national average
inhales cannabis in B.C.  Every user is a potential criminal under the
existing law.

Once convicted users are barred from travelling out of the country.  They're
ineligible for jobs in some fields.  Criminal record checks forbid them from
volunteering as a parent driver on school field trips.

The laws aren't being enforced consistently across the country, Cauchon
says.  Police in some areas across the country appear unwilling to tag a
criminal record on someone just because they're indulging a vice.

Even so, millions of dollars worth of resources are still being squandered
on a relatively minor offence.  There's no forcing it back in.

B.C. is the province regarded as having the most lax enforcement.  Of 9,520
drug charges in 2000, 61 per cent were for cannabis.  Of the 5,840 cannabis
charges, more than a third were for simple possession.

Meanwhile, trafficking, cultivating and importing are the source of most
drug-related violence.

Police should focus their attention on heroin, cocaine and other drugs that
have a more damaging effect on users.

It's time to change priorities.

 
 


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web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 18:44:12 -0700

Subject:HI: Big Isle police seize Med MJ again Up TOC

Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Friday, July 19, 2002

Big Isle police seize plants
from medical pakalolo user

By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

LEILANI ESTATES, Hawaii >> Another medical marijuana user says Big Island
police have interfered with his legal use of the substance.

Guy Shepard, 60, a retired accountant in Leilani Estates south of Hilo, said
police seized two of his seven plants yesterday and destroyed a third.Police
left as they came, via helicopter, without arresting him.

The incident followed the arrest of three medical marijuana users in Kona
last week where police seized 20 plants and 1.5 ounces of dried marijuana.

The three were released without charges, and their dried marijuana was
returned to them, but not their plants. Mayor Harry Kim said the police
return of seized marijuana in Kona shows they committed "some kind of
judgment error."

All four people in both incidents had state medical marijuana permits.

Kim said he did not know about the Leilani incident, but the Kona incident
showed a need to clear up confusion about medical marijuana to avoid
"unnecessary trauma to citizens." Kim is reviewing proposed policeprocedures
for medical marijuana, meaning there is no county policy for police on the
matter yet.

Shepard said he was at his home about 2:15 p.m. when a woman police officer
came down a rope from a helicopter and went after his marijuana plants inthe
front yard of his 1-acre property.

While he ran to his house for his marijuana permit, another officer camedown
the rope. The officers cut down his largest plants, about 6 feet tall,
although the plants were not mature, he said. The officers left alone four
other plants, including two mature ones, he said.

State law allows medical marijuana users to have three mature plants, four
immature plants and up to three ounces of dry marijuana.

Kona vice Lt. Robert Hickcox said state rules say a plant is mature if it has
flowers and buds. Religious marijuana advocate Dennis Shields says that
standard falsely includes plants with immature buds.

Mayor Kim said he has no problem with using marijuana as medicine. "I know
how debilitating chronic pain can be," he said.

Shepard, who said he has "big-time backaches," said, "It's really intense
pain and cannabis does take it away. It's not a scam. It really does work."

=A9 2002 Honolulu Star-Bulletin -- http://starbulletin.com


=



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web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 21:57:57 -0700

Subject:CA: Medicinal Marijuana Is Legal, Court Says Up TOC

Newshawk: Jane Marcus
Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jul 2002
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2002 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Lori Aratani

MEDICINAL MARIJUANA IS LEGAL, COURT SAYS

Note From Doctor Can Clear Charges in California

Californians who have a doctor's approval to smoke marijuana are protected
from conviction for violating state drug laws, the state Supreme Court
ruled Thursday.

The unanimous decision -- the first time the court has ruled on the state's
controversial medicinal marijuana initiative -- could reduce the number of
prosecutions for growing and possessing the drug. It also bolsters the law
by making it easier to defend against prosecution under the measure
approved by voters in 1996.

"The possession and cultivation of marijuana is no more criminal -- so long
as its conditions are satisfied -- than the possession and acquisition of
any prescription drug with a physician's prescription," Chief Justice
Ronald M. George wrote for the court.

Although the ballot measure does not shield patients or primary caregivers
from arrest or prosecution, the court said it can be used as a defense to
dismiss charges before a trial.

Gerald Uelmen, the Santa Clara University law professor who argued the
case, said the court's decision also has symbolic value because it treats
medicinal marijuana like any prescribed drug.

"For the first time the court is equating the medical marijuana patient
with the regular medical patient who gets a prescription," he said. As a
result, Uelmen said he was hopeful that the ruling would discourage police
from arresting people who grow marijuana and have a doctor's note
recommending its use.

With the passage of Proposition 215, California voters became the first in
the nation to approve a measure that allowed patients to smoke marijuana to
ease their symptoms with the approval of a doctor. Since 1996, eight other
states have passed similar measures.

Since the proposition was approved, its implementation has been hampered by
court cases pitting the federal government against state officials. Last
year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that made it impossible for
third parties to provide medicinal marijuana to seriously ill patients
without running afoul of federal drug laws. As a result, several Bay Area
medicinal pot clubs have shut.

Thursday's ruling grew out of a Tuolumne County case of a blind diabetic
who cultivated pot to ease his nausea and maintain his weight. Myron Mower
was arrested after sheriff's deputies discovered marijuana plants at his home.

"Today was a good day," said a jubilant Mower, 40. "This protects people
from being arrested and having to worry about going to trial."

Dennis Peron, Proposition 215's sponsor, said he wished the court would
have issued a stronger decision, but was nevertheless happy with the outcome.

Mower was arrested in 1997 when sheriff's deputies found his 31 plants. The
Tuolumne County department allows no more than three plants for medicinal
use. Counties set their own limits on the number of plants permitted.

Uelmen said he was disappointed that the court did not address the varying
standards in its ruling.

Thursday's ruling, which overturns an appeals court decision, sends Mower's
case back to Tuolumne Superior Court for a trial on whether those 31 plants
were for medical use. But Uelmen said he expects prosecutors to drop the case.

The ruling makes it easier for Mower and other defendants to prevail at
such trials.

The court decided that, to prove their cases, defendants only need to raise
a reasonable doubt about a prosecutor's charges that their marijuana was
not for medical use. At Mower's trial, however, jurors had been instructed
that he had to prove this case by a preponderance of the evidence, a much
higher standard.

Even the state attorney general's office, which argued the case on behalf
of Tuolumne County, praised the court's decision.

"The California Supreme Court's decision today provides the state with a
welcome and needed interpretation of important aspects of the Compassionate
Use Act of 1996," said Attorney General Bill Lockyer, using the measure's
legal title. "I believe the court's decision strikes an appropriate balance
in helping ensure that truly needy patients whose doctors have recommended
medical marijuana to alleviate pain and suffering related to serious
illnesses will have access to the medicine under California law."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alex

 
 


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web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 09:43:58 -0700

Subject:Canada: Lax Marijuana Laws Baffle Tourists Up TOC

Newshawk: CMAP
Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jul 2002
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2002 Southam Inc.
Contact: letters@nationalpost.com
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Alison Appelbe
Pubdate: Thursday, July 18, 2002

LAX MARIJUANA LAWS BAFFLE TOURISTS

Magazine Rates Vancouver Best Place For Tolerance Of Weed

VANCOUVER - B.C.'s largest city is so renowned for its tolerance of
marijuana, many tourists assume selling the drug is legal, say employees at
marijuana-related businesses.

"There's no open buying and selling in Vancouver, yet unfortunately a lot
of people come with that impression," said Scott Hearty at the B.C.
Marijuana Party headquarters and bookstore, one of a dozen legal
hemp-friendly businesses.

Frequently asked where to buy the drug, he said he prefaces his remarks
with a "buyer beware" spiel, then adds: "Walk around for half an hour and
you're going to be approached by half-a-dozen people trying to sell it to you."

Further fuelling such tourism is an article in the summer issue of
New-York-based High Times magazine that rates Vancouver the best
international destination for tolerance and availability of the cannabis weed.

Titled "High Places," the article singles out Vancouver for its physical
setting, outdoor activities and public realm in which the consumption of
marijuana is unlikely to attract police attention. It also claims marijuana
is widely grown, stating: "Having an indoor grow-room in the city is almost
as common as having a den."

The High Times article rates Amsterdam, where marijuana can be purchased
legally, the second-best destination after Vancouver, followed by
Barcelona, the Lake Lugano region of Europe and centres in Jamaica and
Thailand.

While Tourism Vancouver does not promote the marijuana culture, executive
vice-president Paul Vallee said visitors are drawn to a relatively
easy-going lifestyle, and if marijuana is involved, so be it.

"People come here for the same reasons that people live here. It's about
life and attitudes."

On the other hand, Mr. Vallee said, visitors can be frightened or repelled
by the crime and dereliction associated with widespread heroin and cocaine
use in the city's Downtown Eastside.

"There's been a fair amount of media coverage about Vancouver's drug
problem, and that has a negative image," he said.

Similarly, Mr. Hearty was quick to disassociate a marijuana culture
centered in the 300 block of West Hastings Street with hard drug use in the
nearby Downtown Eastside. "You go down to Main and Hastings and you'll find
a much different atmosphere," he said.

He attributed the success of a cluster of marijuana-driven businesses on
West Hastings Street -- currently facing little or no intervention from
police -- in part to hard work and a dignified approach to challenging the
laws.

At the Kitsilano Hemp store -- where pipes, rolling papers and hippie-era
clothing are sold -- clerk Valerie Van Breugel agreed the lack of law
enforcement attracts foreigners.

"I've lived in a lot of cities outside America, and this is the most open
city in the world."

However, she added that some visitors -- possibly those from U.S. states
with particularly restrictive laws -- are surprised by the degree of tolerance.

"A lot of people are confused because we sell pipes so openly."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

 
 


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 09:50:10 -0700

Subject:CA: State court gives medical pot users new protections Up TOC

from Judy Osborne

Pubdate: Fri. 19 July 2002
Pubsource: San Francisco Chronicle
Author: Harriet Chiang
  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/19/MN210109.DTL

State court gives medical pot users new protections
Justices rule its use is OK when prescribed by a doctor

Harriet Chiang, Chronicle Legal Affairs Writer Friday, July 19, 2002

The California Supreme Court gave seriously ill patients who use marijuana
powerful legal protection Thursday, ruling that the state's medical
marijuana law can help pot users avoid being tried for drug offenses.

The unanimous ruling is the first time the court has addressed the scope of
Proposition 215, the 1996 voter-approved initiative that legalized the
medical use of marijuana. Eight states have passed similar laws.

The law allows doctors to recommend marijuana to relieve the often
debilitating symptoms of AIDS, epilepsy, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis as
well as the side effects of cancer treatment.

While federal agents have cracked down on clubs that distribute cannabis,
they have largely left it up to local law enforcement to go after
individuals who, on the recommendation of a physician, use or grow marijuana
for health reasons.

Thursday's ruling will result in fewer prosecutions and more acquittals,
said Gerald Uelmen, a professor at Santa Clara University Law School who
defended a Tuolumne County man with diabetes who was arrested for growing
marijuana. "People who medicate with marijuana are not second-class
patients," he said.

The state had argued that Prop. 215 merely gives patients a defense they can
raise once they get to trial.

But the high court said the initiative provided a much stronger shield,
giving patients a total defense during trial and a way to get the charges
dismissed long before then.

In powerful language, the court compared those who use pot for health
reasons with a patient receiving prescription medication.

Under Prop. 215, Chief Justice Ronald George said, "The possession and
cultivation of marijuana is no more criminal -- so long as (the law's)
conditions are satisfied -- than the possession and acquisition of any
prescription drug with a physician's prescription."

The status of the law has been in doubt since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
in May 2001 that federal anti-drug laws make no exception for patients who
use marijuana for health reasons.

But in Thursday's ruling, the state court made it clear that last year's
ruling was strictly a federal issue that had no bearing on its decision.

VICTORY FOR AN AILING MAN

The ruling was a victory for Myron Mower, who suffers from diabetes,
blindness, digestive dysfunction and other ailments. Prosecutors agreed that
Mower, who has been hospitalized several times, was "extremely ill."

He was convicted of drug offenses in 1998 after police found 31 marijuana
plants in his home -- 28 more than the county's three-plant limit. Mower,
40, said he had used marijuana for the past 20 years to relieve his nausea
and to stimulate his appetite.

A state appeals court in Fresno upheld his conviction, finding that the
initiative "simply gives those arrested a day in court."

On Thursday morning, the Tuolumne County man was awakened by his wife who
told him that he had finally won his four-year court battle.
"It's wonderful," he said of the decision.
The ruling means he won't have to go through the black market or to a drug
house to get marijuana. "It's dangerous," Mower said. "And every time you go
to one of those places, you take a chance of getting arrested."
'STRIKES AN APPROPRIATE BALANCE'
State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, whose office had argued in favor of
Mower's conviction, nonetheless praised the ruling for providing much needed
guidance.
"The court's decision strikes an appropriate balance in helping to ensure
that truly needy patients . . . will have access to this medicine under
California law," Lockyer said.
Medical marijuana advocates hailed the ruling as fulfilling the voters'
wishes. "What this decision does is finally provide relief for the common
patient in the community," said J. David Nick, a San Francisco attorney who
filed a brief on behalf of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C.
Since voters approved Prop. 215, Nick said, he has defended at least 50
patients who have been arrested on drug charges.
One area the court did not address was the different limits counties impose
on the number of marijuana plants patients are allowed. A bill pending in
the state Senate would set statewide procedures and standards for enforcing
Prop. 215.
In their ruling, the justices stressed that Prop. 215 does not give a
defendant total immunity from being arrested in the first place.
But the law "must be interpreted to grant defendant a limited immunity from
prosecution," George said in the court opinion.

That means that a patient who is using marijuana on the recommendation of a
doctor can rely on the law to ask a judge to immediately dismiss the
charges.

If the case goes to trial, the court said, a patient merely has to raise a
"reasonable doubt" to be acquitted of drug charges.

"It's the most protective standard for the defendant," said Ann Brick, an
attorney for the ACLU in Northern California, which filed a brief in support
of Mower.

"As long as a jury thinks that the act might apply," she said, "that's
enough for an acquittal."

E-mail the writer at hchiang@sfchronicle.com.

 
 


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 10:58:49 -0700

Subject:UK: US cannabis refugees cross border Up TOC

The Guardian, London, UK
Saturday July 20, 2002

US cannabis refugees cross border
'Persecuted' medicinal marijuana users seek asylum in Canada
by Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles

A group of Americans are seeking political asylum in Canada, claiming they
face persecution by their own government because of their use of medicinal
marijuana.

Their cases are being considered by the Canadian legal authorities, who are
assessing whether they face "genuine fear of persecution" if they are sent
back.

Hundreds of Americans have crossed the border into Canada in recent months
following clampdowns ordered by the attorney general, John Ashcroft, on
medicinal marijuana clubs that exist in states where voters have passed
measures approving them.

They provide marijuana to patients suffering from cancer, Aids, multiple
sclerosis and glaucoma and whose doctors have suggested the use of the drug.

This week, the California supreme court ruled that Californians who grow or
use marijuana for personal medicinal needs are protected from prosecution in
state courts if they have approval. But the federal government is fiercely
opposed to this and is continuing its prosecutions in federal courts.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently raided medicinal
marijuana clubs in LA and San Francisco, a process upheld by the US Supreme
court.

Some who have crossed the border are wanted on marijuana charges in the
United States and the US authorities are pressuring Canadian law enforcement
agencies to send them back. The moves come as Canada, like the UK, is
liberalising its laws on cannabis.

One of the best known American fugitives in Canada is Renee Boje, whom the
US wishes to extradite to stand trial for cultivating cannabis plants at the
home of Todd McCormick, a cancer patient and medicinal marijuana activist in
LA. She had watered the plants on his behalf.

"I'm a member of a class of society they're trying to oppress or wipe out
completely," Renee Boje told the online news network, AlterNet from her home
in Vancouver, British Columbia.

If convicted, she faces a minimum sentence of ten years. The length of that
sentence is part of her plea that she faces unjust persecution if she were
to return home. "There are hundreds of Americans here because they are being
persecuted by their own government."

Another American, Steve Kubby, the Libertarian Party's 1998 candidate for
governor of California, and Ken Hayes, who operated the 6th Street Harm
Reduction Centre in San Francisco, have also entered Canada.

Kubby, who has adrenal cancer, faces a 120-day jail term for drug
possession. Additional charges, filed since he arrived in Canada, of
conspiring to grow more than 1,000 plants, mean that he could face a
sentence of ten years or more.

Both men have now formally claimed refugee status under the UN refugee
convention on the grounds that they have a "well- founded fear of
persecution" in the US. Canadian immigration officials have allowed them to
stay while their status is determined in court.

"US officials have violated the law and intentionally targeted the leaders
of the medical marijuana movement by using conspiracy charges," said Kubby.
"I'm being threatened with a death sentence. How can anyone justify that and
say it's not an attempt to persecute me?"

Their claims have been attacked by the White House drugs policy adviser
Robert Maginnis who said on Canadian TV: "Providing sanctuary to some of
these people who see Canada as an easy place to escape the long leash of US
law enforcement is dangerous ... I would hope that the Canadian government
would see fit to send them back to the US so they can face charges."

The Canadian federal government has granted permits to possess or grow
marijuana to more than 800 Canadians who suffer from Aids, cancer or
multiple sclerosis.

Many of the American refugees are now growing their own marijuana through
such medicinal marijuana clubs as the Vancouver-based Compassion Club, which
estimates that over 100 of its 2,000 clients are Americans.

Canada became a refuge in the sixties and seventies for people who did not
want to fight in the Vietnam war, a journey memorialised in the song, My
Uncle, by the Flying Burrito Brothers, who sang of "heading for the nearest
foreign border/ Vancouver may be just my kind of town/ 'Cos they don't need
the kind of law and order/ That tends to keep a good man underground."

The "war on drugs" is now propelling others towards that same foreign
border.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 11:35:11 -0700
 Subject: Canada: Lightening Up On Cannabis Use

Newshawk: Join CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/lists.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jul 2002
Source: Guelph Mercury (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 Guelph Mercury Newspapers Limited
Contact: editor@guelphmercury.com
Website: http://www.guelphmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1418
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

LIGHTENING UP ON CANNABIS USE

There is nothing too terribly damaging in inhaling an occasional puff
of marijuana smoke into your lungs.

Premier Ernie Eves has admitted to doing it when he was tad younger
than he is now. Energy Minister Chris Stockwell did it too -- and look
where it has gotten him. Heck, even you (along with 48 per cent of the
Canadian adult population) may have tried pot.

So why an English storm over the issue? There, the government has
announced its intention to lighten up on cannabis and its many users.
It's not going to go so far as to legalize the stuff, but it is going
to make it sort of OK to carry a reefer or two in your pants pocket or
perhaps even behind your ear. What it is still not going to declare OK
is to grow, market or otherwise distribute the stuff.

So what is the message? It is the same message that a parliamentary
committee on this side of the pond which has been studying this issue
(at least we think that's what they've been doing with it) has been
passing along unofficially and perhaps unwittingly. It is that
marijuana is not the worst substance you can put into your body, but
it's certainly not the best either. It is that distributing marijuana
is not what nice people do, and that growing it is still very naughty.

Of course, few people get arrested anymore either in England or in
Canada for simple marijuana possession (there are simply too many
simple possessors to bother with) though police still have that little
option in their arsenal. But people do get busted for dealing the
drug, and people who turn agricultural skills to cultivating it can
expect an unpleasant call from the police at some point in their careers.

The question is: Where will the now-freer simple possessors get their
supply? The answer is that they will naturally continue to get it from
illegal dealers. Dealers will acquire it from illegal pot-growers or
importers, and the ring-leaders (who the police will try very hard to
catch) will continue to risk arrest to rake in their mountains of
tax-free cash.

A lot of issues could certainly be addressed by simply licensing
growers (marijuana is now Ontario's third largest cash crop),
establishing authorized and controlled distributorships and having the
stuff packaged, sold and taxed (like cigarettes) on the retail market.
But neither English, Canadian and especially not U.S. legislators seem
prepared to take that bold and admittedly politically-risky step just
yet.

So we will continue to assign police to the dangerous (and costly)
task of putting growers out of business and tracking down dealers.
We'll also continue to suffer the ill effects of massive thefts of
hydro-electric power by illegal marijuana-growing operators.

This is nuts. This is also considered the political way it has to be.
Indeed, the next step in this curious process (as recommended to both
the Ontario legislature and Hamilton city council) may be to grant
utilities the power to place liens on properties where illegal grow
operations have sapped electrical power without paying for it.

The measure may help Ontario's privatized power companies defray the
cost of the thefts (now running at an estimated $500 million a year
across the province). It will also ease them into the real estate
business. What it won't do is supply a large and growing market with
what it really wants -- a legitimate and reliable supply of domestic
pot
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake

CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like 
alcohol, allow doctors to recommend cannabis through pharmacies and restore 
the unregulated production of industrial hemp.

*Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp*
mail:     CRRH ; P.O. Box 86741 ; Portland, OR 97286 USA
email:   crrh@crrh.org
phone:  (503) 235-4606
fax:       (503) 235-0120
web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 15:18:02 -0700
 Subject: CA: Ruling Aids Medical Marijuana Patients

Newshawk: Rick L. Root
Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jul 2002
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Copyright: 2002 The Orange County Register
Contact: letters@ocregister.com
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

RULING AIDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS

California Supreme Court Reduces Their Burden To Show They Have Valid
Prescriptions.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)- Medical marijuana users can get some immunity from
criminal prosecution, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday.

People who use medical marijuana and are arrested on drug charges can use
their status in their defense before a trial starts, and if their cases do
go to trial, the burden to show they have valid prescriptions is reduced,
the court ruled. The ruling also applies to primary caregivers of medical
marijuana users.

"For marijuana patients, it means they will be treated exactly the same as
patients of physicians who receive a prescription," said Gerald Uelmen, who
represented a medical marijuana patient convicted of possessing and
cultivating the drug. "The law for many years in California has been if you
are charged with unlawful possession of prescription drugs, all you have to
do is raise a reasonable doubt that you have a valid prescription."

That is a reduction in the degree of proof previously needed.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, whose office prosecuted the case, also
applauded the decision.

California in 1996 was the first state to approve medical marijuana with
the passage of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act. Nonetheless, the
U.S. Supreme Court said last year that it's illegal to sell or possess
marijuana for medical use.

The ruling stems from the arrest and conviction of Myron Mower, who uses
marijuana to alleviate complications from diabetes. Mower was arrested in
1997 and convicted of possessing and cultivating marijuana. The appeals
court affirmed Mower's conviction.

The state high court sent the case back to the appeals court, ordering a
new trial for Mower.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like 
alcohol, allow doctors to recommend cannabis through pharmacies and restore 
the unregulated production of industrial hemp.

*Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp*
mail:     CRRH ; P.O. Box 86741 ; Portland, OR 97286 USA
email:   crrh@crrh.org
phone:  (503) 235-4606
fax:       (503) 235-0120
web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 15:31:54 -0700
Subject: HI: Big Island residents protest Med MJ raids

Honolulu Advertiser
Saturday, July 20, 2002

Big Island residents protest drug raids
By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i =97 Big Island residents in Kona and Puna are up in arms over
recent raids that some claim are targeted against medical marijuana permit
holders.

Honolulu attorney Jack Schweigert yesterday said he plans to file a lawsuit
in Kona's Circuit Court next week on behalf of at least three victims of the
raids. He said they appear to be the focus of "frustrated police who have not
yet accepted the state law."

Police and county officials denied they're targeting medical marijuana users.

But three Kona residents were arrested July 8 and a Puna man said he was the
victim of a helicopter police raid on Thursday. Each have state-issued cards
allowing them to grow and possess marijuana to treat their ailments.

In Kona, three people at one house were arrested, but not charged, for having
11 mature plants instead of the nine they were eligible to grow under three
medical marijuana permits managed by the state's Public Safety Department.

Rhonda Robison, 32, who holds a permit to use marijuana for hereditary
muscular dystrophy, said it was the third time her household was invaded by
police when her three children her home.

Also arrested was husband John Robison, whose leukemia is in remission, as
well as long-term houseguest Kealoaha Wells, who had returned the weekend
before from three weeks of chemotherapy on O'ahu.

Although police said they confiscated mature plants only, Rhonda Robison said
the officers were mistaken. Just because the plants were beginning to flower
doesn't mean they are ready to harvest, she said.

State law allows medical marijuana users to have three mature plants, four
immature plants and 3 ounces of dried marijuana.

Police said they were aware that the Robisons and Wells had a medical
marijuana permit, but were simply responding to a complaint that they were
growing marijuana on the property.

After consulting with the Public Safety Department and the Hawai'i County
prosecutor's office, officers returned 1.5 ounces of marijuana to the trio,
but not the plants.

On Thursday, retired accountant Guy Shepard of Puna's Leilani Estates said
three of his plants were seized by officers who dropped from a helicopter
while he raced into his home to retrieve his medical card.

Shepard, 60, who describes himself as having a back problem and a hip ailment
caused by a 1991 bicycle crash in Ka'u, said one plant was returned but it
already had been cut and was therefore of no value to him.

Big Island marijuana advocate Dennis Shields said Big Island police have
gotten overzealous in their crusade against marijuana.

"They're bullies with badges who beat up on sick people," he said. "We have
an ice epidemic on this island, and they're going after marijuana. Thepolice
department is out of control."

Advertiser staff writer Timothy Hurley contributed to this report.

CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like
alcohol, allow doctors to recommend cannabis through pharmacies and restore
the unregulated production of industrial hemp.

*Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp*
mail:     CRRH ; P.O. Box 86741 ; Portland, OR 97286 USA
email:   crrh@crrh.org
phone:  (503) 235-4606
fax:       (503) 235-0120
web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
End of Restore-Digest V2002 #141
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