CALIFORNIA'S REMOVES STATE LIMIT ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA POSSESSION

Justices Rule 2003 Law Was Wrong to Restrict Stashes

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state cannot
impose legal limits on the amount of pot that medical marijuana users
can grow or possess.

In a ruling certain to exacerbate debate over the governance of
medical marijuana in California, the court threw out legislation that
limited medical pot users to 8 ounces of dried marijuana and six
mature or 12 immature marijuana plants.

The court ruled that the Legislature violated the state constitution
when it passed Senate Bill 420 in 2003. The judges found that the
plant limits set by the legislation improperly amended the
Compassionate Use Act voters passed in 1996 legalizing marijuana for
medical use in California.

That ballot measure said that medical pot users and their caregivers
can possess any amount of marijuana "reasonably related to the
patient's current medical needs."

"These individuals are not subject to any specific limits and do not
require a physician's recommendation in order to exceed any such
limits," Chief Justice Ron George wrote in the unanimous court
decision. "Instead they may possess an amount of medical marijuana
reasonably necessary for their ... needs."

The decision means that voters - not the Legislature - would have to
approve any statewide limits on medical marijuana possession for
those limits to be valid.

But it left many other questions surrounding the possession and sale
of medical marijuana unanswered.

It provided no clarification for local governments wrestling with how
to regulate the explosion of storefront dispensaries selling medical
marijuana. That issue may be addressed by another case pending before
the Supreme Court that challenges local governments' authority to
block dispensaries from opening.

Thursday's ruling did uphold the right of the state and local
governments to issue medical marijuana identification cards for users.

And, according to several legal experts, it allows for local
governments to set their own limits on how much medical marijuana a
user can possess and for police to arrest people who violate those
local limits.

The catch, the experts said, is that people can't be prosecuted
solely for violating local possession guidelines. Prosecutors would
have to prove they were violating some other aspect of state marijuana law.

"It left the (local) limits in for the purposes of determining
whether law enforcement can make an arrest," said Scott Thorpe, CEO
of the California District Attorneys Association. "What it said is
those limits are applicable for law enforcement ... But they are not
applicable in a trial."

Jeff Jones, executive director of the Patient ID Center, an Oakland
group that helps people obtain medical marijuana cards, said the
court affirmed an important "safe harbor" for pot patients following
local guidelines.

But that "harbor" varies greatly. In Oakland, for example, medical
pot users can have 72 indoor plants and 3 pounds of marijuana. Most
other cities adhere to far stricter limits.

"If they grow more than the 'safe harbor' (of local standards), they
can lose their plants, lose their medicine or lose their gardens. It
is up to local interpretation by law enforcement," Jones said.

Notably left unanswered by the ruling is what constitutes
"reasonable" legal possession under state law.

"That's the question everybody is concerned about," said Mariellen
Jurkovich, executive director of the Humboldt Patient Resource
Center, an Arcata dispensary that grows marijuana.

"What does 'reasonable' mean? Who is going to decide what is OK for
your personal use? Is it OK to have 20 pounds sitting in your house?"

Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said the ruling reflected
"an abundance of ambiguity."

"The trend is pretty obvious: greater acceptance and greater use of
marijuana," he said. "It does present a law enforcement challenge."

Tamar Todd, a Berkeley attorney for the Drug Policy Alliance Network,
which seeks alternatives to drug enforcement, applauded the court's
rejection of state limits on possession. But she said medical users
are undermined by the lingering haze surrounding medical marijuana law.

"The problem that patients and law enforcement face under a system
with no limits is that it is unclear as to who is following the law
and who isn't," she said. "It puts patients at risk. Even though they
might have a defense in court, they can be repeatedly arrested."