UPHOLD THE LAW

It's Past Time To Implement The Medical-Marijuana Initiative

As Gov. George W. Bush recently observed, medical marijuana should be left
up to the states to decide, not the federal government. Unfortunately
serious opposition to medical marijuana still exists within the law
enforcement community, which believes that the Compassionate Use Act of
1996 is some sort of hoax, or worse, not a law to be obeyed.

Did you happen to see Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo's comment earlier
this week in the Register? The assistant sheriff is quoted as saying that
Proposition 215 can't be enforced here in Orange County because it
"contradicts federal law."

If Prop. 215 conflicts with federal law, why hasn't it been challenged in
court? According to the California Constitution, unless a new law has been
challenged in court, all California officials are obligated to obey it,
even the assistant sheriff.

If Prop. 215 violates federal law, why does the federal government send
each of its eight medical marijuana patients 7.1 pounds of marijuana per
year? The FDA even provides a note that these patients can show law
enforcement. How come that's not a conflict and Prop. 215 is?

The truth is that three years after voters approved Prop. 215, sick,
disabled and dying people are being arrested, jailed, exposed to
opportunistic infections, indicted, plea bargained, humiliated, bankrupted
and worse, simply to uphold a drug policy that isn't working.

If only our elected officals would uphold their oath of office and uphold
the will of the voters who wisely chose three years ago this day to protect
sick people and exempt them from the War on Drugs.

Elected officials and law enforcement officers are sworn to "defend and
uphold the Constitution." That Constitution states in the 9th and 10th
amendments that all rights and powers not enumerated to the federal
government remain vested with the people and the states.

There is also the matter of the 9th Circuit Court decision on Sept. 13 this
year. The appeals court ruled that seriously ill patients who have medical
necessity should be allowed to use medical marijuana. That decision has
just been appealed, but because it was a Per Curiam Opinion, which is a
legal term for a strongly supported decision that has unanimous consent, it
seems doubtful it will be overturned.

If respect for the law is to mean anything, our elected officials must set
aside their Zero Tolerance ideology and uphold the law. Elected officials
could begin tomorrow to implement the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 by
taking the following specific actions:

1. Stop arresting sick people. Don't authorize budgets or federal grants
that will be used against sick people. Adopt the Oakland Guidelines to
protect sick people, the only medical-marijuana guidelines that were
created by police, patients and physicians working together to establish
limits based upon real world needs.

2. Stop treating sick people like criminals. Fund non-invasive voluntary
patient/caregivers' identification cards, managed by county or state health
departments, which protect the privacy of patients and cannot be accessed
by law enforcement agencies.

3. Stop forcing sick people into the black market. Demand that the federal
government take action on the petition filed by Jon Gettman with the Drug
Enforcement with the Drug Enforcement Administration on July 27, 1995, and
reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to a Schedule iii. That action would
solve many of the problems and concerns voiced by law enforcement and allow
patients to go directly to their pharmacist to obtain their medicine.

4. Stop prosecuting sick people and their caregivers. Elected officials
must provide legal protection for sick and dying patients from illegal
arrests and prosecutions. To uphold the law, officials must see to it that
grand juries investigate any and all complaints by medical marijuana
patients or caregivers regarding violations of the Compassionate Use Act.

Make no mistake, this issue is no more about marijuana than the Boston Tea
Party was about tea. This is about sick and dying people who are living in
fear that the very people we pay to protect us have turned against them all
because they use a medicine that the federal government's own Institute of
Medicine study showed is not addictive and not a gateway drug.

Three years is long enough. The voters have spoken and they have clearly
voted to stop treating medical marijuana patients like criminals. Medical
marijuana is the law; now is the time for law enforcement and our elected
official to show good faith and uphold the law.