State's High Court Finds Compassionate Use Act Does Not Affect Employers' Rights LOS ANGELES -- The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that employers can fire workers who test positive for marijuana even if they have a note from a doctor recommending its use for medical reasons. The 5 to 2 ruling came in a state that was the first to legalize cannabis for medical use but has followed up with ambiguity and ambivalence about making it a reality. In the latest ruling, the high court said a Sacramento company had the right to fire Gary Ross in 2001 after a routine drug test came back positive for marijuana. Ross showed RagingWire Inc. a copy of his physician's recommendation to smoke the drug to relieve chronic back pain from three lumbar vertebrae fractured when he fell off the wing of an F-16 as an Air Force mechanic in 1983. [continues 620 words]
California's highest court dealt a blow to medicinal marijuana advocates Thursday, ruling that employees can be fired if they test positive for marijuana - even if the worker has a prescription for the drug allowed under state law. The California Supreme Court ruled that discrimination laws don't apply in cases where employees fail drug tests because marijuana is still considered illegal by the federal government. Justice Kathryn Werdegar, who wrote for the 5-2 majority, also argued the state's 1996 legislation legalizing medicinal marijuana didn't address the rights of employees and employers. The Compassionate Use Act only protects medicinal users from arrest or prosecution, the court ruled. [continues 722 words]
OROVILLE -- After an hour-long deliberation Friday afternoon, a jury found a Chico man not guilty of charges he cultivated marijuana and stored it illegally. It's thought by attorneys to be the first case tried in Butte County Superior Court under California Senate Bill 420, which allows people with medical marijuana prescriptions to form a cooperative or collective to grow for their recommended use. Brett Eric Johnsen was on trial for what Butte County authorities said was an illegal garden growing in his house on West First Street. Butte County sheriff's officers found the garden May 30 upon entering Johnsen's home on a search warrant. They reportedly found plants hanging from a bedroom ceiling and an elaborate garden filled with flowering marijuana in the basement. [continues 412 words]
Long Beach has become the latest city caught in a crossfire between the state and federal governments over medical marijuana. Last week, federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials raided the Long Beach Cannabis Club, which is located downtown (near a new condominium project and the CityPlace center). Agents seized 33 kilos of marijuana, about $10,000 cash and arrested the proprietor, Samuel Matthew Fata. Since the raid, the club has remained closed. But there are an estimated 10 other clubs operating in Long Beach, according to a list put together by the Long Beach City Prosecutor's office. [continues 296 words]
Medical pot-using patients won a major victory Wednesday when a California appeal court ruled that Garden Grove cops must return the marijuana they confiscated from a Southern California man during a traffic stop. The man's attorney, Joseph Elford, chief counsel for the Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access, was almost breathless from excitement in confirming that the ruling was the first published decision in which a California appellate court ordered the return of doctor-approved medical marijuana. "This is a huge case for us," Elford said. "It's probably the greatest legal victory for medical marijuana patients in California to date." [continues 542 words]
Appellate Court Tells Garden Grove It Can't Rely on Federal Ban on Medical Marijuana The decision by a unanimous three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal to uphold a court order directing Garden Grove police to return marijuana seized from a properly certified patient is a welcome validation of the law approved by voters 11 years ago. Since it clarifies the duty of state and local law enforcement agencies - to uphold state law, not to ignore it and seek to enforce federal law - - it should end the noxious and widespread practice of simply seizing medical marijuana from patients who are legally entitled to possess it. [continues 232 words]
The statistics are staggering. In 2006, marijuana arrests reached a record 829,627, with one occurring every 38 seconds. Of these, 89% involved mere possession, not sale or 'manufacture'. [1] The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in 2004 that state and federal prisons held 41,507 individuals on marijuana-related offenses. [2] So, when Irv Rosenfeld of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, lit a joint at a press conference this past Tuesday, November 20, the fact that he wasn't arrested should be newsworthy by itself. But the absence of handcuffs, Miranda warnings, plea agreements, and parole officers are what make Irv Rosenfeld a prominent public figure and what formed the basis for this groundbreaking press conference. That day, he celebrated his 25th anniversary as the second individual to participate in FDA's now defunct Compassionate IND program. He marked this 'Silver Anniversary' by pulling another pre-rolled joint out of a round, silver tin containing 300 such cigarettes that he continues to receive each month from the federal government. [continues 898 words]
When his new boss at Ragingwire Inc. ordered Gary Ross to take a drug test, the recently hired computer tech had no doubt the results would come back positive for marijuana. But along with his urine sample, Ross submitted a doctor's recommendation that he smoke pot to alleviate back pain - a document he figured would save him from being fired. It didn't, however, and Ross was let go eight days into his tenure because the company said federal law makes marijuana illegal no matter the use. [continues 709 words]
Oakland -- The owner of an Oakland marijuana candy factory surrendered Thursday to face federal drug charges, but not before blasting the U.S. government for what he called an unfair attack by federal bullies on ailing patients who rely on medical marijuana. He was later released on a $300,000 bond. Michael Martin, 33, of El Sobrante was one of four people charged last week in connection with Tainted Inc., which started as a boutique business that made chocolate truffles and grew into a large marijuana-candy maker that bought chocolate by the ton, authorities said. [continues 500 words]
More Than 10 Years After Voters Spoke, a Surge in Dispensaries Has Cities and Counties Scrambling to Regulate, Fend Off DEA Highly publicized raids last month on three medical marijuana outlets in downtown San Mateo were the latest example of the continuing clash between state and federal officials over medicinal cannabis. And that clash is reverberating through communities across the state. More than a decade after Californians voted to legalize medical marijuana, an explosion of dispensaries and patients has cities and counties scrambling to regulate the operations. [continues 2240 words]
Supporters Want City to Regulate Distribution of Medical Marijuana SAN MATEO -- Medical marijuana patients and advocates, upset over the federal raid and shutdown of three medical cannabis dispensaries in downtown San Mateo last week, turned out en masse for a Tuesday night San Mateo City Council meeting. The advocates -- among them the operators and patients of the three raided dispensaries -- urged city councilmembers to adopt a resolution that would regulate the distribution of medical marijuana in the city and another resolution prohibiting local law enforcement from cooperating with the DEA on actions against medical marijuana. [continues 683 words]
San Mateo County DA Calls in Feds After Group Contests Desist Order REDWOOD CITY -- Soon after the Patients Choice Resource Cooperative moved into its new digs in downtown San Mateo, the group received a cease-and-desist letter from the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office. Patients Choice is a medical marijuana dispensary, one of dozens in the Bay Area providing medicine for patients in possession of doctors' letters prescribing the drug. But the cooperative was not complying with state and federal law, according to the November 2006 letter, and it was told to close. [continues 1523 words]
Seven people arrested on drug charges stemming from an investigation into an Oakdale medical marijuana dispensary were in court Wednesday. Their arraignments were put off until Sept. 25 so the district attorney has more time to investigate. On July 31, Michael Cadiz, 32, of Modesto; Addison DeMoura, 33, of Oakdale; Shawn Garvin, 27, of Modesto; Russell Green, 28, of Stockton; Angel Herrera, 32, of Lathrop; Brennan Johnston, 27, of Oakdale; and Joseph Young, 30, of Turlock were arrested after a two-month investigation into the Oakdale Natural Choice Collective. [continues 369 words]
Orange County Agrees to Medical-Marijuana ID Cards Just As the DEA Cracks Down on Dispensaries in L.A.: Every Positive Step Seems to Be Met With a Step Backward Eleven years after California voters, by passing Proposition 215, created exceptions to the marijuana prohibition laws for medical patients using marijuana, or cannabis, with the recommendation of a licensed physician, the issue of safe access to this medicine is still in turmoil. Orange County just became the most recent county in California to comply with California law and begin the process of setting up a voluntary ID cards program for patients. The Los Angeles City Council has declared a temporary moratorium on new medical cannabis dispensaries, but under the leadership of Dennis Zine, a former policeman, it has declared its clear intention to set up a regulatory and licensing regime for them. [continues 1543 words]
There's something almost idiotic about the obviously confused and misguided way in which federal authorities are trying to enforce anti-marijuana laws in California today. Nothing better illustrates this than the headlines that appeared together in newspapers this spring and summer about numerous pot raids in middle class neighborhoods across the state and those about the second trial of medical marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal of Oakland, an author sometimes known as the "guru of ganja." In the eastern Los Angeles County suburb of Diamond Bar, authorities burst into a three-bedroom home one day and found the entire house had been converted into a massive indoor marijuana farm with an elaborate irrigation system and overhead lights on timers set up to bypass electric meters that might have alerted the local utility something odd was going on in the house. [continues 739 words]
There's something almost idiotic about the obviously confused and misguided way in which federal authorities are trying to enforce anti-marijuana laws in California today. Nothing better illustrates this than the headlines that appeared together in newspapers this spring and summer about numerous pot raids in middle-class neighborhoods across the state and those about the second trial of medical marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal of Oakland, an author sometimes known as the "guru of ganja." In the eastern Los Angeles County suburb of Diamond Bar, authorities burst into a three-bedroom home one day and found the entire house had been converted into a massive indoor marijuana farm with an elaborate irrigation system and overhead lights on timers set up to bypass electric meters that might have alerted the local utility something odd was going on in the house. [continues 563 words]
SAN JOSE -- A Santa Cruz marijuana collective raided by federal agents in 2002 made its case for the right to grow medical pot in court Friday. Though no ruling was issued, supporters of the group, Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said they're encouraged by the judge's response. U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel heard arguments on the federal government's motion to dismiss the suit, which alleges the raid five years ago at WAMM's Davenport garden was outside the law, given the legality of medical marijuana in California. The county and city of Santa Cruz are signed on as plaintiffs in the suit. [continues 391 words]
Judge Says County Allowed Ballot Data To Be Destroyed An Alameda County judge said Friday she may void election results for a failed 2004 Berkeley medical marijuana measure and order it returned to the ballot because county election officials failed to hand over data from voting machines. Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith also indicated that she may force county officials to pay attorneys' fees and reimburse a medical marijuana group more than $22,000 for the costs it incurred during a disputed recount shortly after the November 2004 election. [continues 526 words]
If Group Can Overcome Standing Challenge, Other Would-Be Litigants Might Mimic Strategy to Oppose Variety of Federal Policies Medical marijuana advocates and federal prosecutors have never agreed on whether the drug has medical value. Now, an Oakland, Calif.-based advocacy group wants a court order that would force the feds to see it their way. Americans for Safe Access is trying to use a little-known Clinton-era law to make federal agencies take back statements about marijuana -- for example, that pot has "no currently accepted medical use." The group says this "misinformation" costs it time and money to refute. [continues 604 words]
The question of whether marijuana, also known as cannabis, has medical benefits engenders a wide range of often opposing opinions. The federal government denies there is any medical benefit, while some doctors' associations support its use. Other organizations say the issue needs more study. The US Food and Drug Administration, the agency responsible for testing and approving drug products for the country, says marijuana is not FDA approved for any medical treatment and supports its classification by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule I drug, along with heroin and opium. [continues 532 words]
