Bill seeks to provide medical pot defense

Santa Cruz Sentinel ^ | February 20, 2003 | Brian Seals

[MrLeRoy]

Medical marijuana users and growers in California could cite state law as a defense against federal prosecutors who criminalize their actions, under a bill planned by three federal lawmakers.

U.S. Reps. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and Lynne Woolsey, D-Petaluma, plan to co-sponsor the bill next month with Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, an Orange County Republican.

The proposed legislation comes in the wake of stepped-up federal raids on medical marijuana gardens over the past year, including one at a Santa Cruz County cooperative last September.

The legislation also comes after marijuana guru Ed Rosenthal was convicted on federal charges of growing pot in Oakland in a trial during which his lawyers weren’t allowed to mention he was growing it for Oakland’s medical marijuana patients.

"The purpose of this bill is to allow defendants in federal criminal trials to introduce evidence that their marijuana-related activity was performed for a valid medical purpose under state law," Farr said in a written statement.

Farr is to be honored today in Sacramento during a press conference hosted by the marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access. He was to be joined by family members of people recently convicted on federal marijuana charges.

Eight states have approved medical marijuana use, but the bill recognizing state marijuana law is likely to face an uphill battle in a Republican-controlled Congress.

Rohrbacher said the bill was a reasonable approach to settling the conflict between federal and state laws.

"As far as I know, it is the people of the state who are supposed to be determining criminal laws," he said by telephone Wednesday. "I just think that if the majority of people in a state vote to permit people to use marijuana for medical purposes, the federal government should not interfere with that."

The tension between federal enforcement and state laws was highlighted in Santa Cruz County during last September’s raid of the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana’s Davenport garden.

About 167 plants were uprooted by federal drug agents, and co-founders Mike and Valerie Corral were briefly jailed. No charges have been filed.

Ben Rice, an attorney for the cooperative, said that while he wasn’t optimistic a federal measure would pass, he welcomed the proposed legislation.

"The WAMM and Rosenthal cases have really galvanized national attention to the problem we have here," Rice said. "I think this is a terrific move."

While the DEA hasn’t filed charges, WAMM has gone on the offensive, filing suit against the feds.

Having lost the first round of a court battle to get the marijuana back, the group is appealing the decision.

The group also plans to seek an injunction prohibiting similar raids in the future. The county and city have voted to join that suit as plaintiffs.

[headsonpikes]

MMMMMM....Doughnuts.....must...get...dough..nuts...

[PaxMacian]

"Thanks to recent roundups of the sham doctors, this may be true. But as recently as a few weeks ago, it was easy. "

Most if not all doctors are a sham. I have been nearly killed three times by doctors. I manage my health now myself. It is fools like you that would enslave us all to them. Like the fools in Congress attempting to regulate supplements because some 80 or so people died from ephedra while a couple thousand die every year from aspirin, and countless die from doctors mistakes, you would make every individual request a script for herbs.

GOD MADE HERB
GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD
GOD GAVE IT TO MAN

Genesis 1:11
Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.

Genesis 1:12
And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:29
And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.

Nowhere in the Constitution is it enumerated what one may put into ones body. Therefore, that right is reserved for the states or the people. However, since God has already specified in the Bible what one may consume, it is, in fact, the PEOPLE's God given right.

[cinFLA]

Interesting that you should quote someone (out of text) that was feverently AGAINST drugs. But then again why bother with the truth.

[cinFLA]

I still go to doctors but know that I have to do my research. There are some good doctors that will work with you and there are others that will give you a lecture when you try to participate.

[cinFLA]

you would make every individual request a script for herbs.

I have never said such a thing. It is the anti-WoDs that are pushing prescription weed. Not me.

[cinFLA]

Illicit drugs destroy the body and are condemned: 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19.

[cinFLA]

Illicit drugs are condemned because its fruit is rotten. Matthew 7:17ff.

[PaxMacian]

You have lost it on this one!
Matthew 7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

How can a seed which is documented as the best source of protein, with the most complete combination of amino acids required for the sustenance of the human body on the face of Earth, gifted by God, found to be good by God, and given to man ever
become an evil fruit?

[PaxMacian]

Cor. 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Perhaps a gift from God might help you to commune with the Spirit of God which dwelleth within you. I see you skipped over this part of the passage.

Cor. 3:
6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

Your labor would be to imprison those that possess a flower given to them by God. Your reward?

[PaxMacian]

Show the quotes!
He grew hemp!

[cinFLA]

He didn't smoke it.

[PaxMacian]

Cor 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

[cinFLA]

It must be nice to be paid to post. Speaking for myself, yes it is. Jealous?

No. But it is refreshing to see some honesty in a post.

[cinFLA]

And every conservative who opposes hate crimes laws, anti-discrimination laws, and assault weapons bans must be a rascist, bigoted, hate-filled neo-nazi militiaman. Right?

Every one that has stated a position has said he doesn't use drugs. Show me a post where one says he uses drugs. Then I will retract my statement.

[cinFLA]

Since y'all are so fond of taking advice from Thomas Jefferson:

But we must acknowledge their services in furnishing us an abundance of cotton, a substitute for silk, flax and hemp.

Put that in you pipe and smoke it.

[PaxMacian]

Show me a post where one says he uses drugs.

"When the government fears the people there is liberty; when the people fear the government there is tyranny." --Thomas Jefferson

"The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them." --Thomas Jefferson, 1774.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. --
Motto on Jefferson's Seal

[headsonpikes]

It is useless to try to reason a man out of what he didn't reason himself into.

Or something like that.

Any doughnuts left?

;^)

[PaxMacian]

Inferior subsitutes all!
Same as soy bean to herb seed, inferior!