News in Brief

Garden Grove

POLICE MUST RETURN MEDICAL POT

An appeals court ruled Wednesday that police must return the medically
prescribed pot they confiscated from a man during a traffic stop in
2005.

Police cited Felix Kha, 22, after finding a third of an ounce of
marijuana in his car. Prosecutors threw out the charges because Kha
had a doctor's approval to use the drug, and an Orange County Superior
Court judge ordered city officials to return the marijuana. Police
refused, alleging that federal drug laws trump the state's medical
marijuana law.

The ruling this week upholds the judge's original order. In the
unanimous decision, the panel of three judges wrote that "it is not
the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws."