JOHANNESSEN'S POT PLAY: SENATOR SEEKS MEDICINAL MARIJUANA LIMITS

State Sen. Maurice Johannessen of Redding is bravely stepping into the
political minefield of medical marijuana.

A conservative Republican, Johannessen is no proponent of marijuana use of
any kind. Yet he is proposing legislation that would allow Californians to
possess and grow specific quantities of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Why? Johannessen is out to help law enforcement make sense out of the vague
medicinal marijuana law. Good for him.

Passed by voters in 1996, Proposition 215 left all the tough questions
about medicinal marijuana unanswered. Which health ailments qualify for the
use? Where do patients get the marijuana? Can others grow it on their
behalf? Can a patient have a week's supply on hand or a year's? How can any
of this reconcile with federal laws that leave no room for a medicinal use
of marijuana?

The result in the north state, Johannessen's political turf, has been the
predictable mess for law enforcement and the courts. Shasta County
authorities, for example, arrested a man in 1998 when officers found 41
seedlings of marijuana growing in his back yard and 24 ounces of pot in his
bedroom. Yet the man claimed that his doctor orally, not in writing,
endorsed his use the pot to help combat symptoms of his illness, Hepatitis
C. A jury threw out the case. The judge ordered officers to give the man
his pot back. Before they could, federal officials confiscated the drugs.

In Tehama County, the sheriff has guidelines limiting patients to growing
18 seedlings, cultivating to maturity only three. In Shasta County, the
sheriff has offered no such guidelines. They have turned for Johannessen
for help. Laudably, Johannessen isn't ducking.

The senator's strategy is to submit a bill that doesn't initially specify
how many plants a patient can grow or how many ounces or pounds of pot that
patient can possess. That will be up to the legislative process.
Johannessen's colleagues on both sides of the political aisle, law
enforcement agencies and the governor should engage this pot bill rather
than hide in the smoke. The status quo is a mess for patients and police
alike.