RAMSEY SKEPTICAL OF NEW MED-POT GUIDELINES

DA Doesn't Believe They Will Do Much to Stop Illegal Activity

Last week state Attorney General Jerry Brown issued new guidelines
clarifying California's medical-marijuana laws, but Butte County
District Attorney Mike Ramsey is skeptical. The guidelines won't do
much to deter illegal drug activity, he said.

The guidelines are the first attempt by a state agency to define the
types of organizations that are legally permitted to dispense
marijuana, according to a press release. They specify that only
medicinal collectives and cooperatives may sell the herb, and only
among their own members. The collectives cannot be operated for
profit, may not purchase marijuana from unlawful sources and must
have a defined organizational structure that includes detailed
records proving that users are legitimate patients.

A major component of the guidelines is their contention that
storefront dispensaries that sell to anyone with a doctor's
recommendation are illegal because they don't fit the definition of a
collective.

That guideline, Ramsey said, is "great" because other district
attorneys have "felt they are probably illegal" but didn't enforce
any state laws to close the operations down.

"California voters approved an initiative legalizing medical
marijuana, not street drugs," Brown said in a press release.
"Marijuana intended for medicinal use should not be sold to
nonpatients or on illicit markets."

Brown said these guidelines will help law enforcement agencies
perform their duties in accordance with California law and help
patients understand their rights under Proposition 215. Law
enforcement agencies had requested the guidelines in response to the
belief that individuals and cartels, under the cover of Proposition
215, have expanded illegal cultivation and sales of marijuana.

"It's a nice summary of what the law is," Ramsey said. "Will it
change those folks who want to use marijuana for illicit trafficking?
Probably not."

However, Americans for Safe Access attorney Joe Elford said in a
press release that compliance with these guidelines will result in
fewer unnecessary arrests, citations and seizures of medicine from
qualified patients and their primary caregivers. The state has more
than 200,000 doctor-qualified medical-cannabis users, according to the group.

California voters approved Proposition 215, which exempts patients
and their primary caregivers from criminal liability under state law
for the possession and cultivation of marijuana, in 1996. In 2004,
the Legislature enacted the Medical Marijuana Program Act, which
established a voluntary statewide identification-card system,
specific limits on the amount of medicinal marijuana each cardholder
could possess and rules for cultivation by collectives and cooperatives.

Still, Ramsey said Proposition 215 was and still is "a very confusing
law ... purposefully written to be vague and confusing." He said
that, since Proposition 215 passed, high school statistics show an
increase in smoking marijuana or an increase in having access to
marijuana--a diversion from medical marijuana.

Although the guidelines were issued not necessarily to deter illicit
behavior, but to clear up the confusion associated with Proposition
215, Ramsey believes those who illegally smoke or cultivate will just
try that much harder to "fit in" with the guidelines.

A report titled Marijuana Production in the United States, by
drug-policy researcher Jon Gettman, estimated that in 2006 more than
21 million pot plants were grown in California at a street value of
up to $14 billion. That would make it the largest agricultural
industry in the state.

Ramsey said he is in full support of 215 for "the purposes it was
intended for--folks who are seriously ill.

"However, I find a lot of folks use it as an excuse to smoke dope,"
he continued. "Obviously, some of the medical reasons that are given
are a bit laughable." He said he has seen recommendations for
marijuana to cure alcoholism, "shortened-leg syndrome" (one leg
shorter than the other) and stress caused by the fear that police
would confiscate marijuana being grown illegally. The most popular
reason is a bad back, Ramsey continued.

He said some people don't want any limits at all, and he sees
problems with violence and increased robberies with "people that
trade in large quantities of marijuana" who may be attempting to
illegally use or cultivate it "saying it is medical marijuana."

Typically, the small growers who may have some plants growing indoors
or in a back yard are usually not a problem, he continued.

With these guidelines in place, Ramsey said he would like to see a
double-blind scientific study to evaluate whether marijuana is really
useful medicinally, rather than the anecdotal evidence that has been
inconclusive--the study Ramsey says was promised when Proposition 215
was passed.

If marijuana is proved to be truly effective, Ramsey said he would
like to see it rescheduled from a Schedule 1 drug, the most tightly
restricted type of drug, to a Schedule 2 drug that can be prescribed
and controlled.

See www.buttecounty.net/da for a description of the medicinal
marijuana guidelines specific to Butte County. To view the state
guidelines, go to www.ag.ca.gov.