MEDICINAL MARIJUANA IS LEGAL, COURT SAYS

Note From Doctor Can Clear Charges in California

Californians who have a doctor's approval to smoke marijuana are protected
from conviction for violating state drug laws, the state Supreme Court
ruled Thursday.

The unanimous decision -- the first time the court has ruled on the state's
controversial medicinal marijuana initiative -- could reduce the number of
prosecutions for growing and possessing the drug. It also bolsters the law
by making it easier to defend against prosecution under the measure
approved by voters in 1996.

"The possession and cultivation of marijuana is no more criminal -- so long
as its conditions are satisfied -- than the possession and acquisition of
any prescription drug with a physician's prescription," Chief Justice
Ronald M. George wrote for the court.

Although the ballot measure does not shield patients or primary caregivers
from arrest or prosecution, the court said it can be used as a defense to
dismiss charges before a trial.

Gerald Uelmen, the Santa Clara University law professor who argued the
case, said the court's decision also has symbolic value because it treats
medicinal marijuana like any prescribed drug.

"For the first time the court is equating the medical marijuana patient
with the regular medical patient who gets a prescription," he said. As a
result, Uelmen said he was hopeful that the ruling would discourage police
from arresting people who grow marijuana and have a doctor's note
recommending its use.

With the passage of Proposition 215, California voters became the first in
the nation to approve a measure that allowed patients to smoke marijuana to
ease their symptoms with the approval of a doctor. Since 1996, eight other
states have passed similar measures.

Since the proposition was approved, its implementation has been hampered by
court cases pitting the federal government against state officials. Last
year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that made it impossible for
third parties to provide medicinal marijuana to seriously ill patients
without running afoul of federal drug laws. As a result, several Bay Area
medicinal pot clubs have shut.

Thursday's ruling grew out of a Tuolumne County case of a blind diabetic
who cultivated pot to ease his nausea and maintain his weight. Myron Mower
was arrested after sheriff's deputies discovered marijuana plants at his home.

"Today was a good day," said a jubilant Mower, 40. "This protects people
from being arrested and having to worry about going to trial."

Dennis Peron, Proposition 215's sponsor, said he wished the court would
have issued a stronger decision, but was nevertheless happy with the outcome.

Mower was arrested in 1997 when sheriff's deputies found his 31 plants. The
Tuolumne County department allows no more than three plants for medicinal
use. Counties set their own limits on the number of plants permitted.

Uelmen said he was disappointed that the court did not address the varying
standards in its ruling.

Thursday's ruling, which overturns an appeals court decision, sends Mower's
case back to Tuolumne Superior Court for a trial on whether those 31 plants
were for medical use. But Uelmen said he expects prosecutors to drop the case.

The ruling makes it easier for Mower and other defendants to prevail at
such trials.

The court decided that, to prove their cases, defendants only need to raise
a reasonable doubt about a prosecutor's charges that their marijuana was
not for medical use. At Mower's trial, however, jurors had been instructed
that he had to prove this case by a preponderance of the evidence, a much
higher standard.

Even the state attorney general's office, which argued the case on behalf
of Tuolumne County, praised the court's decision.

"The California Supreme Court's decision today provides the state with a
welcome and needed interpretation of important aspects of the Compassionate
Use Act of 1996," said Attorney General Bill Lockyer, using the measure's
legal title. "I believe the court's decision strikes an appropriate balance
in helping ensure that truly needy patients whose doctors have recommended
medical marijuana to alleviate pain and suffering related to serious
illnesses will have access to the medicine under California law."