California, Ahaheim

[palmspringsbum]

Medical Pot Law Trumps Anaheim

The Orange County Register
Tue, 02 Oct 2007
Editorial

<span class=postbigbold>City's Ban on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Conflicts With the State Constitution.</span>

Superior Court Judge David Thompson last Friday essentially punted the issue of whether the city of Anaheim's law that essentially bans anything that remotely resembles a medical marijuana dispensary is in conflict with state law. Qualified Patients Association, an association of medical marijuana patients and caregivers, had challenged the law and sought an injunction against its enforcement.

Judge Thompson denied the injunction, sidestepping a number of pertinent issues. The real challenge to Anaheim's law will come in court in about five months, but it won't be in Judge Thompson's court.

It is unfortunate that the injunction on behalf of patients was denied, but it is unlikely that Anaheim's law will survive a court challenge. It is clearly in conflict with state law. Given that cities are subdivisions of the state under the California constitution, it is simply irrelevant that marijuana is prohibited under federal law. While state and federal law enforcement agencies may sometimes cooperate, the primary duty of state law enforcement agents is to enforce state law, not federal law.

State law is clear on the issue of medical marijuana. Section 11362.5 of the Health and Safety Code contains the language of Proposition 215, passed by voters in 1996, which carves out an exception to state marijuana prohibition laws for qualified patients and their caregivers. Senate Bill 420, which is Section 11362.7 of the code, among other things expanded the definition of caregiver and provided guidelines for the number of plants a qualified patient can have under cultivation.

Both laws declared that their intent was to encourage and expand access to medical use of marijuana by sick people in a safe and controlled manner. Anaheim's law, which defines a dispensary as anyone who provides marijuana to more than one patient and outlaws them within the city, clearly does the opposite, severely restricting safe access by qualified patients.

The city said it passed the law because of problems associated with a particular dispensary in the city. An armed robbery and illegal drug use occurred there, city officials said. But Qualified Patients, the group challenging the law, had come into existence without the city being aware of it, largely because it was not creating law-enforcement problems. How much sense did it make to forbid dispensaries, when one was operating without creating problems for law enforcement?

Anaheim's law may be legal -- at least for now. But it is unwise and mean-spirited. It richly deserves to be overturned.

[palmspringsbum]

Friday, February 15, 2008

Court rejects challenge of medical marijuana ban

<span class=postbigbold>Dispensary plans to appeal ruling that supports Anaheim's ban.</span>

By SARAH TULLY
The Orange County Register

A judge has tossed out a challenge to Anaheim's law against medical-marijuana dispensaries, believed to be the first such lawsuit in Orange County.

The Qualified Patients Association, the medical-marijuana advocacy group that filed the lawsuit, plans to appeal Wednesday's Orange County Superior Court ruling, said Tony Curiale, the association's attorney.

"We believe the law is on our side," Curiale said. "We'll appeal the case and let the court of appeals determine whether or not the judge in our case made the correct ruling."

Countywide, 21 cities have banned dispensaries, at least on a temporary basis. Some local cities were watching the Anaheim court case as a possible precedent.

In September, the association sued Anaheim to block its law forbidding marijuana outlets, saying the ordinance conflicts with a state voter-approved proposition allowing marijuana to be used by patients who have doctors' permission to take it for medical reasons. However, federal law still outlaws marijuana possession in most cases.

Judge David Chaffee's ruling this week states that the court has "no ability or authority" to allow the association to issue marijuana.

"This case joins a long list of cases that attempt to circumvent federal drug law to make legal the sale and/or dispensing of this illegal drug," the ruling states.

Deputy City Attorney Moses Johnson said he is pleased with the ruling.

"We believe the court has given detailed reasons why the city's ordinance is proper," Johnson said. "We think we can defend this ruling on appeal."

The association has closed its shop on a major Anaheim street, but kept the lease in a strip mall in hopes that the court would rule in its favor.

Contact the writer: 714-704-3793 or stully@ocregister.com