Police return seized pot

Donovan No Runner walked out of the San Luis Obispo Police station all smiles Friday, holding the bag of marijuana authorities had returned to him.

A local Superior Court judge had ordered the city to return the marijuana it confiscated from No Runner last summer, ruling the 23-year-old Grover Beach man had a valid doctor's recommendation.

But police were concerned that handing the pot over to No Runner would violate a federal law prohibiting the distribution of controlled substances.

As a result, the City Council considered appealing the court's ruling during a last-minute meeting Friday, but instead it decided to give up the fight.

"The city is an agency of the state, and we're following state law and a court order," Interim City Attorney Gil Trujillo said.

Shortly after the city decided not to appeal the case, No Runner went to the police station, where his 8.4 gram bag of marijuana was returned -- still in good condition.

While smoking marijuana is illegal under federal law, California's Proposition 215 makes it legal for those with a doctor's recommendation.

"For the time being, people are protected under state law, not under federal law," said Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates the decriminalization of marijuana use.

While state voters legalized medicinal marijuana, law enforcement can still confiscate pot until it is proven that a doctor's recommendation is legitimate.

No Runner's difficulty arose because state law does not specify what is supposed to happen to medicinal marijuana once confiscated.

In court last month, No Runner's attorney, Lou Koory, cited an Oregon case in arguing that police are immune from federal prosecution, though no such case exists in California.

With no clear guidelines for such a case in the state, No Runner's case could have become a precedent on appeal.

But the city also decided it was not feasible to pay attorneys' fees at a time when it is experiencing a $5 million deficit.

Koory said he and his client were ready to fight the issue if an appeal had been sought.

No Runner said his doctor recommended marijuana to combat the effects of bipolar disorder.

He was lighting a water pipe near SLO Brewing Co., between a trash can and a tree, when he was stopped by a police officer in August.

No Runner told the officer he had a doctor's recommendation, but he was cited anyway, and his marijuana was taken.

Once the recommendation was verified, the District Attorney's Office dismissed criminal charges. But police would not return the pot or the pipe.

Last month, Superior Court Judge Barry LaBarbera, intending to set a local precedent, said the police had to return the marijuana within 30 days.

Koory said the police could have faced a contempt of court charge had they not returned the pot by Friday's deadline.

Despite the difficulty in getting his pot returned, No Runner said he wanted to set an example for others who need medicinal marijuana -- particularly those who have greater needs than he does.

Without a clear guideline, he said, police could confiscate marijuana merely to keep legitimate users from smoking it.

LINK TO TEXT BELOW

WHAT'S YOUR DEFINITION OF A MEDICINE? A DRUG DESIGNED TO GIVE PATIENTS RELIEF FROM CERTAIN SYMPTOMS? OK, THEN WHAT ABOUT MARIJUANA? IT'S ILLEGAL, IT'S A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE, BUT IT GIVES PATIENTS RELIEF FROM CERTAIN SYMPTOMS. WHERE DO YOU STAND ON LEGALIZING IT? HERE ARE THREE VERY DIFFERENT MEDICAL POINTS OF VIEW.

BY THE TIME CANNABIS SATIVA WAS INTRODUCED TO THE WESTERN WORLD IN THE 18 HUNDREDS, CIVILIZATIONS FROM ASIA TO AFRICA HAD ALREADY BEEN USING IT FOR CENTURIES. NOW WE KNOW THIS HERB BETTER AS MARIJUANA. IT RELIEVED PAIN, RELAXED MUSCLES, AND HELPED INDUCE SLEEP. 1937'S MARIJUANA TAX ACT MADE IT ILLEGAL IN THE UNITED STATES. BUT TODAY, THE NATION'S MOST WIDELY USED ILLICIT DRUG IS EXPERIENCING A SURGE IN POPULARITY IN A RATHER UNEXPECTED ARENANAMELY, THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY.

Dr. Neil Flynn/AIDS Specialist:
"Most patients have tried marijuana at some time in the past. They've survived the experience with marijuana and they know that it gives appetite and it suppresses nausea and they often come asking if we can recommend it. We do that but only after other things have failed."

DR. NEIL FLYNN OF THE UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER IS ONE OF CALIFORNIA'S LEADING AIDS EXPERTS. HE SAYS THE AIDS EPIDEMIC HAS BROUGHT A NEW DEMAND FOR THE USE OF MARIJUANA AS A MEDICAL TREATMENTA TREATMENT HE CAN'T LEGALLY PRESCRIBE. AIDS PATIENTS OFTEN BECOME DANGEROUSLY MALNOURISHED AS A RESULT OF THEIR DISEASE...AND THEIR MEDICATIONS CAN CAUSE SEVERE NAUSEA. TRADITIONAL DRUGS ARE AVAILABLE, BUT OFTEN COME WITH A WHOLE SLEW OF SIDE EFFECTS.

Dr. Neil Flynn/AIDS Specialist:
"For example Compasine which is a drug that's been around a long time for nausea, in AIDS patients causes a lot of side effects. They become stiff, their jaw gets or they get what's called torticolis where their neck becomes stiff, very uncomfortable with it, or they shuffle and can't walk properly and so if that occurs, I can't use the drug anymore and we have to move on to the synthetic Marinol."

MARINOL IS THE LEGAL PRESCRIPTION FORM OF MARIJUANA. IT CONTAINS T-H-C, TETRO HYDRO CANABANOL, ONE OF THE HUNDRED OR SO CANABANOID SUBSTANCES FOUND IN THE PLANT. T-H-C IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MOOD ALTERING EFFECTS, AND IN THIS SYNTHESIZED FORM, PATIENTS EXPERIENCE DIFFERING RESULTS.

Dr. Flynn:
"The problem with Marinol is that people either get no relief or they get high from it. It's worse, they say, than getting stoned on marijuana."

Dr. Sidney Scudder/ Associate Chief Oncology & Hematology:
"In my own personal experience I've found that patients who are older do not like the marijuana very much because you can't control the amount of high you get with the pills."

DR. SIDNEY SCUDDER IS AN ONCOLOGIST AT THE UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER. PROPOSITION 215 - THE BALLOT INITIATIVE THAT PERMITS THE MEDICINAL USE OF MARIJUANA IN SEVERAL STATES - APPEARS TO ALLOW HIM TO RECOMMEND THE DRUG FOR ALLEVIATING THE SYMPTOMS ASSOCIATED WITH CHEMOTHERAPY. BUT BECAUSE OF LIMITED RESEARCH, DOCTORS ARE LEFT GUESSING AS TO HOW THIS DRUG WORKS.

Dr. Sidney Scudder:
"Probably the appetite control center and the nausea center are pretty closely juxtaposed in the brain stem. So the chemicals which get into the brain stem probably act to either suppress what we call the nausea center, but may also enhance the appetite center so that people regain their appetite."

GLAUCOMA IS THE LEADING CAUSE OF BLINDNESS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. CHARACTERIZED BY HIGH PRESSURE WITHIN THE EYE. ONE DRUG THAT HAS BEEN FOUND TO BRING THE PRESSURE DOWN IS MARIJUANA.

Dr. James Brandt Director, Glaucoma Service:
"Twenty or 30 years ago when marijuana was first looked at as a way to treat glaucoma, we thought of glaucoma as only a pressure disease. In other words, if you had a pressure above a certain number you had glaucoma, and if you got the pressure down below a certain number, that was sufficient. We now understand that glaucoma is a whole lot more complicated than that."

ACCORDING TO GLAUCOMA SPECIALIST DR. JAMES BRANDT, RESEARCHERS NOW KNOW THAT GLAUCOMA IS MORE COMPLICATED THAN JUST HIGH-PRESSURE IN THE EYE. THERE ARE GENETIC FACTORS TO CONSIDER, AS WELL AS INADEQUATE BLOOD FLOW TO THE OPTIC NERVE. AND ALTHOUGH MARIJUANA DOES RELIEVE THE PRESSURE, THE EFFECTS ARE TOO SHORT LIVED TO BE CONSIDERED ADEQUATE.

Dr. Sidney Scudder:
"It only lasts a couple of hours. And since people have high pressure that's causing glaucoma damage 24 hours a day, if you were to realistically use marijuana as a chronic treatment for the management of glaucoma, you would have to smoke a joint every two hours around the clock for it to have an adequate treatment effect."

SO, DOES MARIJUANA HAVE ANY REAL MEDICINAL VALUE? DR. BRANDT IS QUICK TO POINT OUT THAT NEWER, MORE EFFECTIVE MEDICATIONS OTHER THAN MARIJUANA HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO TREAT GLAUCOMA. THE SAME IS TRUE FOR NAUSEA AND APPETITE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH AIDS AND CANCER.

MEANWHILE, THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH HAS RECENTLY APPROVED THE COUNTRY'S FIRST SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF MARIJUANA. THE STUDY WILL DOCUMENT THE RISKS AND/OR BENEFITS OF ITS USE. HOPEFULLY, THAT DATA WILL HELP CLEAR THE SMOKE SURROUNDING THE FUTURE OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA.

"I think the best way to approach this is to do the research that's needed on marijuana and find out why it works better than tetro hydro canabanol and pills."

THERE'S NEW INFORMATION NOW THAT MARIJUANA MIGHT HAVE TREATMENT POSSIBILITIES IN DISEASES LIKE ALZHEIMER'S, PARKINSON'S EVEN CERTAIN BRAIN INJURIES. BUT UNTIL RESEARCHERS CAN COME UP WITH HARD EVIDENCE TO BACK CLAIMS LIKE THESE, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILL NOT CONSIDER IT A VIABLE MEDICATION.

Very interesting indeed. I certainly can't imagine at any point in my life smoking 1 joint every 2 hours, let alone at this point. I have heard that THC levels are much higher today than 3 decades ago. I'll continue to believe the Lord for my healing with conventional medicine and without medicinal marijuana while I continue investigating...

"Huh, why do you all want to keep this "practioner's" name secret?"

It's not my point. Whomever he/she is, this person wasn't on trial and the court (as if I put my trust in courts) deemed his/her able to prescribe and verified Mr. No Runner's possession via the practioner's diagnosis prescription under state law (as if state law means anything to you?)...or does that not concern a conservative like you?

If he was true to the cause(pot is wonderweed) he wouldn't, shouldn't be afraid of his name being published in the local paper.

Who says he/she is? Take it up with the court or call Mr. No Runner.

Oh yeah I forgot, you pro-potters think that he will be shipped to something worse than Stalin's gulag for disclosing his name on the "prescription".

I'm hardly a 'pro-potter'. I haven't smoked pot for more years than you've probably been on this earth. When was the last time you smoked pot, if you can possibly be honest about it? I notice you don't answer personal questions but insist on violating everyone else's privacy, so go ahead and answer honestly if it is within you to do so.

You pro-potter's are a paranoid warped lot, IMO. But I am not surprised since constant use of cannabis(pot) does induce paranoia, IMO.

Frankly, more and more the paranoid bunch appears to me to be the arm chair warriors in the WO(some)Ds; the ones that will swill their favorite adult beverage and act as though they have the market on intoxicants cornered.

Obviously you just want drugs at any cost and you are paying us lip service here at FR pretending to be reasonable.
You say that the drug issue doesn't violate another's rights. That is among the biggest lies ever posted on FR.

#1 The cost to the public in health care as they spread AIDS, die from cancers and other diseases related to using is high.
The costs goes from thousands to perhaps millions for the one with AIDS. This affects what you call "OTHERS".
So much for that total BS you posted.

#2 Liability to employ even "unknown" illegal drug users. They cause liability enough to in some cases close businesses down and create a loss of jobs for others clean of drugs.
Employers are open to all kinds of lawsuits if they have an illegal drug user working for them. Even if they were not known to be there, if they hurt themselves or others the liability to the employer is sky high. Again affecting "OTHERS" proving what you say is total bunk.

You said nothing that is true to me in your post and the lack of ethics you suggests regarding drugs is down right scary!
I think you are practicing the politics of addiction and could care less about the actual facts. That is my opinion based on what you posted to me. If you were honest, you could not deny the cost ever again in another pro-use thread.

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