ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE RELEASES MEDICAL MARIJUANA GUIDELINES

The state Office of the Attorney General released medical marijuana
guidelines Monday in hopes of ensuring that Proposition 215 is not
abused, providing law enforcement -- as well has patients and
caregivers -- a better understanding of the law.

Dana Simas, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said the
guidelines will protect all parties involved from unnecessary court
proceedings.

"Law enforcement officials can better protect themselves, and
patients can be better protected from unnecessary arrests, searches
and detains," Simas said, adding that along with the state's
identification card program and other local ordinances, the state
guidelines will help clear up ambiguity in the laws.

According to the guidelines, qualified patients and primary
caregivers may possess up to 8 ounces of dried marijuana, and may
maintain no more than six mature plants or 12 immature plants, unless
a doctor recommends more.

While the guidelines indicate that law enforcement must honor a
state-issued identification card, a person carrying only a local
identification card or recommendation from a licensed physician is
subject to more scrutiny and seizure.

The office is releasing the guidelines, which includes a section on
dispensaries, as Arcata gets ready to finalize its medical marijuana
dispensary guidelines at today's planning commission meeting, which
will be held at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 736 F St.

Simas said the attorney general is mandated to come out with the
guidelines, but counties can put out local ordinances for business
practices. Arcata's proposed guidelines define cooperatives and
collectives and also clarify how membership and cultivation should be handled.

Commissioner Paul Hagen said he anticipates that the document will be
discussed at the meeting.

"Who knows where the conversation will head," he said.

Hagen has said in past meetings that the commission would have to
address the AG's guidelines when they were released.

"This is very much a moving target," Hagen said of the ambiguity of
SB 420 and Proposition 215. He said he has been very aware that any
guidelines produced by the city should be in accordance with state laws.

Noah Mamber, the legal services coordinator for the Oakland-based
Americans for Safe Access, said the organization has been working
very closely with the AG's office on the guidelines and is happy with
the outcome.

"I'm so excited at the release of these guidelines. This document
will stop unnecessary legal action happening across the state," he
said. Mamber's organization has been providing legal advice to
medical marijuana patients about various issues, including wrongful
seizure or arrests.

"We expect to see less people wrongly having their medicine
confiscated, wrongly being cited and wrongly going to jail," he said.

The guidelines are available at
http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/downloads/AG_Guidelines.pdf

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Medical Marijuana Hotlines Help Patients Navigate Legal System

For the last four years, medical marijuana patients have been able to
access free legal advice from a national hotline provided by
Americans for Safe Access, a nonprofit dedicated to helping medical
marijuana patients.

The hotline helps patients navigate through the sometimes complicated
and ambiguous legal system involving medical marijuana.

Noah Mamber, ASA's legal services coordinator, said the hotline can
be very empowering for patients, who are often poor and very sick.

"We help them through that and validate that they're not alone,"
Mamber said, adding that the hotline also gets calls from attorneys,
doctors and landlords trying to better understand the law that
governs patients' legal, medical and growing rights.

"These patients are not only facing biases from the DA or the judge,
or the employer, unfortunately these patients are also facing biases
from their own public defender or their own lawyers," Mamber said.

The organization also received questions through fax and e-mail, and
averages from about 60 to 90 inquiries a week. To help provide
another resource for patients, Mamber has developed a sort of "pick
your own adventure" type of FAQ feature on ASA's Web site. The
feature asks users a series of questions to help them determine their
best plan of action.

Mamber said since March 2004, the hotline has received at least 3,000
calls, with about 2,000 involving law enforcement encounters. But, he
said, the hotline also helps patients with other legal issues such as
housing, employment, or child custody, and allows ASA to track trends.

While a majority of calls are from California, Mamber said he has
received calls from every one of the 11 states that allow medical marijuana.