COURT TELLS COPS: RETURN MEDICAL MARIJUANA IF DRUG CHARGES DROPPED

Police who confiscate medical marijuana must give it back when drug
charges against the user are dismissed, a state appeals court has
ruled in a case that could settle a hotly disputed issue of
conflicting state and federal drug laws.

Statewide police and prosecutors' organizations and 16 city
governments from around California joined officials of the Orange
County community of Garden Grove in arguing that the court-ordered
return of a patient's pot supply would condone drug use, interfere
with federal enforcement and even expose police to possible federal
prosecution for distributing marijuana or aiding in its use.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana said Wednesday that
those arguments were unfounded because California, in a 1996 voter
initiative and a 2003 legislative measure, has determined that
medical marijuana is legal under state law.

"It is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug
laws," said Justice William Bedsworth in the 3-0 ruling. Withholding
small amounts of marijuana from patients who have a doctor's
recommendation for the drug, he said, "would frustrate the will of
the people to ensure that such patients have the right to obtain and
use marijuana without fear of criminal prosecution or sanction."

The ruling is "a huge victory for patients in California," said Kris
Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, which represented
the patient in the Garden Grove case.

Although the court decided only that police must return marijuana
that was legally possessed by the user, Hermes said the ruling also
suggested that "they shouldn't be seizing the marijuana in the first
place" when the amounts are within limits set by state or local
governments and the user has an identification card or doctor's note.

Lawyers for the city and law enforcement associations were
unavailable for comment.

Advocates of medical marijuana say local police have routinely
confiscated small amounts of pot from authorized users since passage
of the 1996 initiative, Proposition 215. They said officers continued
those seizures even after 2003, when the Legislature approved
identification cards for marijuana patients and authorized them to
carry up to 8 ounces of the drug, or more if local governments set a
higher limit.

Americans for Safe Access said reports from nearly 800 medical
marijuana users over a two-year period found police seized the drugs
in more than 90 percent of their encounters, regardless of whether
the user had a doctor's note.

Police often refuse to return the marijuana after charges are
dropped, said Joseph Elford, a lawyer for the organization. He said
judges in some counties, including San Francisco, have sided with the officers.

Wednesday's ruling, the first by an appellate court, is binding on
all lower-court judges in the state until another appeals court
issues a contrary ruling or the state Supreme Court takes up the issue.

Courts have addressed a series of conflicts between state and federal
laws since California voters became the first in the nation to
approve the medical use of marijuana. The U.S. Supreme Court has
ruled that the federal government can enforce its ban on marijuana
use and distribution against California dispensaries, suppliers and
patients, but has not struck down the state law.

Another state appeals court, in San Diego, is considering arguments
by several counties that the state's requirement that they issue
identification cards to medical marijuana users violates federal drug
laws. The state Supreme Court heard arguments Nov. 6 in the case of a
Sacramento company that cited federal law in firing an employee who
used medical marijuana at home.

The Garden Grove case involved Felix Kha, who had about a third of an
ounce of marijuana in his car when police stopped him for running a
red light in 2005. He showed officers a doctor's note for the
marijuana, but they confiscated it and cited him for possessing the
drug while driving.

Kha admitted the traffic violation, but the drug charge was thrown
out because he had a right under state law to possess and transport
marijuana for medical use, the court said. Elford, Kha's lawyer, said
police have kept the marijuana while the city appealed an Orange
County judge's order to return it.

The appeals court said the marijuana was Kha's property and he is
entitled to recover it, just like someone whose car was wrongly
seized by police.

Federal laws override state laws when the two conflict, Bedsworth
said, but federal drug policy is not threatened by "the return of
marijuana to a qualified user whose possession of the drug is legally
sanctioned under state law."