Posted on 02/21/2003 8:04:16 AM PST by 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.
If I leave Oklahoma headed for Florida and hit a roadjam, I am not going to turn around and go to California.
Huh?
Spoken like a gentleman, sir.
Thank you. I became tired of the flaming on the Civil War threads and realized that it was wrong of me to flame on the WOD threads.
The Confederates were no different than Nazis, stuff like that. The thread will start off discussing for example, the battle between the Monitor and Merrimac, and it will quickly degenerate into "Lincoln was the anti-Christ and the southerners were all Nazis" type comments.
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