Putting the cart before the camel

Sacramento, California, is a hotbed for cannabis.  Dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries operate in the city.  A local ordinance regulating dispensaries is being drafted, and is expected to be voted up or down by the city council sometime in late 2010.  In November, Californians will vote on Proposition 19, a state initiative that would allow localities to tax and regulate cannabis as they see fit.  The City of Sacramento has a $43 million budget deficit, and elected officials are eying cannabis revenues to potentially help reduce the city’s debt.  At their June 22, 2010 public meeting, the Sacramento City Council signaled wide interest in placing a marijuana tax on the November, 2010 ballot.  The pot tax was quietly placed by city staff on the council’s agenda, along with a broader, unrelated tax proposal.

13 months after her arrest in Operation GreenRx, Donna Lambert will face additional charges to her 7 felony count for medical marijuana

SAN DIEGO - On Friday, April 2nd at 1:30pm, Donna Lambert has been ordered to be arraigned on additional charges stemming from her arrest in the Operation GreenRx Sting in San Diego County last February 2009.  San Diego County is well known for its fierce attempt to overturn California's state medical marijuana laws. Advocates have long criticized the San Diego District Attorney's office for targeting and prosecuting medical marijuana defendants who collectively associate under the Medical Marijuana Program Act.    

“I can’t vote for this because of all the legal threats,” warned West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon.  He was referring to the city’s medical marijuana dispensary ordinance.  It was a very tense situation. No actual legal threats had been issued.  But many cannabis advocates and lawyers alike notified the City of West Sacramento that its draft ordinance had numerous legal vulnerabilities.  

For starters, the city is attempting to force dispensary patrons to purchase a state issued identification card.  That will not pass legal muster, because the California state I.D. card program is explicitly voluntary.  

Testimony on the Legalization of Marijuana

To the California Assembly Committee on Public Safety

By Dale H. Gieringer, Ph.D.

Director, California NORML – www.canorml.org

October 28, 2009

I thank the members of the California Assembly Public Safety Legislative Committee for holding this hearing on the legalization of marijuana. I am here today representing California NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a public-interest lobby representing the interests of the millions of responsible adult marijuana users .[1]

Marijuana should be legal for the same reason that alcohol, tobacco, caffeine and other substances are legal: (1) millions of Californians value and enjoy its use; (2) their use poses no inordinate hazards to society; (3) the prohibition of marijuana artificially creates crime and black-market traffic in the same way as alcohol prohibition and (4) deprives our economy of legal business and revenues.

The laws against marijuana wrongly criminalize millions of otherwise law-abiding Californians. Three million Californians used marijuana last year and over 15 million have done so in their lifetimes.[2] Among them are noted professionals and business people, Nobel Laureates, artists and musicians, sports and entertainment stars, and luminaries in this Capitol.[3]

Despite California's 1976 (partial) decriminalization law, possession of one ounce or less remains a criminal misdemeanor punishable by a fine. Marijuana use may also be punished by loss of employment, public housing, child custody, security clearance, student loans, revocation of parole or probation, etc.