Federal law clouds medical pot-smoking issue
By Donna McFadden
When Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, passed
into law and became Section 11362.5 of the Health and Safety
section of California's penal code, many people thought that
that was the end of the medical marijuana issue.
This law mandates that sick and dying citizens or those with
conditions that could be made more tolerable through the use
of medicinal marijuana be provided with the means to obtain marijuana
safely and affordably. It goes on to ensure that patients and
their primary caregivers would not subject to criminal prosecution.
Yet many sick or dying people using medical marijuana are still
arrested and serve time in jail without the medicine they need
to ease their condition.
State law vs. federal law
The crux of the matter is that according to federal law, marijuana
is an illegal substance and state law cannot supercede federal
law. The police are in a quandary because no one in on the state
government will specify the allowable amounts per patient per
year and in what form. If a police officer is compassionate and
does not seize marijuana, or arrest the person using it, he or
she violates federal law while obeying state law.
At no time in the three-month police academy course is sensitivity
to the conflict between these laws discussed. The police are
not trained in the law of the state with regard to the consumption
of cannabis for medicinal purposes, or its long history as a
medicine. They are simply taught to believe that it is an addictive
drug, which is a likely gateway to other, harder drugs because
users need to deal with the black market in order to obtain it.
Case study
In contrast to this statewide dilemma, an interesting alliance
has been formed in Sonoma County between law enforcement agencies
and the patients and caregivers who live there. The vocal group
of advocates for the medicinal cultivation and use of cannabis
have joined forces with the Sheriff's Department and the Narcotics
Task Force to establish the first county-wide compassionate protocol
for cannabis.
Although this program is still developing, and has its flaws
and misunderstandings, the people in Sonoma County who cultivate
and use marijuana for medicinal purposes are trying to work with
law enforcement to see that, while they get the medicine they
need, no one abuses the rights given them. Law enforcement, in
its turn, tries to help legitimate patients grow what they need.
There is a Peer Review board, set up by the District Attorney,
Mike Mullins. Through the Peer Review process patients ask their
Sonoma County doctors to submit their medical records to the
County's medical association. A volunteer group of doctors reviews
the records and issues a fining. This takes pressure off of the
individual doctor.
If the finding is positive, the patient receives written notification.
The patient then has the option of submitting the paper to the
DA who then forwards the information to the Sheriff's Department,
including the address of the patient. This is entered into the
Sheriff's Department's database. If anyone then tries to get
a warrant for cultivation or possession, they won't be able to.
According to Doc Knappe, spokesperson for SAMM (Sonoma Alliance
for Medical Marijuana), "This program is unique to Sonoma
County. It works pretty well. I am a peer reviewed patient [and]
I feel safer than I ever have."
A relative newcomer to the area is the Narcotics Task Force,
comprised of the SCSD, police departments from Rohnert Park,
Petaluma, Santa Rosa, the Sonoma City Probation Department, and
the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Detective Sergeant Sandy Geaslin, who works for the SCSD and
the NTF, said that while he views the Peer Review board as a
good thing, he sees some problems with it: 1) many people refuse
to go through the process; 2) because all of the doctors are
volunteers, he speculates as to their personal agendas; and 3)
the PRB has never, to this day, issued a negative finding.
Geaslin calculates that the average medical marijuana user in
Sonoma County smokes 12 joints per day, every day, and he feels
that this is ludicrous. "A pound of marijuana a year should
be enough if one joint was smoked in the morning and one at night.
That is enough," Geaslin said.
Obviously, there are some bugs that need to be worked out in
the Sonoma County program. But in spite of the odds against it,
those on each side of this issue are trying to learn from the
other and comply with the spirit, as well as the letter, of the
law.
Copyright
© 2000 by Las Positas College Express