WEED GREED

A Seal Beach resident is challenging county restrictions on medicinal
marijuana. He is suing in Orange County Superior Court for violation of
civil, health and safety code violations, as well as breach of contract
after Drug Enforcement Agents raided his apartment and confiscated 40 to
50 marijuana plants, according to the Orange County Register.

Bruce Benedict, 43, was given a prescription for the controversial drug
six years ago because he suffers from Hepatitis C and has had kidney
failure twice, he said. When Seal Beach Police officers first confronted
the amateur botanist, he showed them paperwork that he claims gives him
permission to smoke, grow and distribute medicinal cannabis, according to
his lawsuit.

California residents voted to legalize medicinal marijuana in 1996, but
federal law still prohibits it, a contradiction many Orange County cities
are struggling with.

As it stands, state law gives the county power to restrict the amount of
marijuana plants a patient can grow at home. That is unless a medical
doctor feels a patient has an intensified need for the drug, in which case
state law allows doctors to override county restrictions.

For example, Orange County officials have set the limit to six plants per
home where a patient is living.

Six plants? How about 50?

We know that there may be special exceptions for some patients, or even
approved distributors, but how did Benedict get a distributor approval in
the first place?

Benedict admits he is a "person who learned the hard way," when it comes
to drug abuse. In 1988 Benedict was convicted twice of possession of
narcotics, cocaine specifically, according to the Register, whose source
for the information was Los Angeles Superior Court.

We can't help but feel that he brought this incident upon himself by
producing the plant on a larger-than-average scale. Maybe if he lived on a
50-acre farm in Northern California, with his closest neighbor living six
miles away, he would have been able to continue with what he did. But in
an apartment in Seal Beach, where you're potentially sharing walls with
your neighbors - what was he thinking? I guess six plants of unspecified
size was not enough?

We can't help but feel that he individually threatened patients liberties.
Legalizing marijuana was no small feat. It puts California in the
forefront of true liberty and democracy. Now he'll possibly face-off with
bureaucrats, politicians, judges, lawyers, media, supporters and
detractors, over his selfish choice to grow as much pot as he could fit in
an apartment.

To be clear, we are not criticizing the drug, the states decision to
legalize the drug, or even local authorities getting involved in a federal
raid.

We are criticizing Benedict's judgment because his actions shine a
negative light to a controversial law, perhaps ruining medical marijuana
for those who truly need it.