Pubdate: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA) Copyright: 2008 The Ukiah Daily Journal Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) A DEFINING MOMENT The California Supreme Court last week performed a very important service for the citizens of California by spelling out once and for all, what a "primary caregiver" is for the purposes of growing, possessing and transporting medical marijuana. What it is not, the court ruled, is anyone who simply grows marijuana and sells it - or even gives it - to a medical marijuana patient. This issue of caregiving was also spelled out pretty clearly, we have thought all along, in Prop. 215, the voter initiative which legalized medical marijuana for the seriously ill and dying. The California Supreme Court cited Prop. 215 which states that the primary caregiver of the medical marijuana patient is the person who "has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety of that person." The court then went on to make it crystal clear that all the gibberish coming out of courts up and down the state about marijuana growers being caregivers was null and void. In this county, like many others in California, commercial pot growers have been getting away with waving "caregiver cards" - basically a permission slip from a medical marijuana patient designating the grower as his or her caregiver - in the faces of law enforcement officers, and smart defense lawyers have managed to convince lazy judges and naive juries that the law allowed it. The California Supreme Court saw that for what it was without any trouble: a hijacking of the intent of Prop. 215 for greed and profit. They concluded that in order to be a caregiver, a person must - at a minimum: 1) consistently provide actual care for the patient 2) provide that care independent of any marijuana treatment 3) provide the care before marijuana came into the picture In other words, be more than a patient's dealer. Hallelujah. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin