MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW ALMOST FUNNY

A fair number of us are amused at this seemingly amazing coincidence: Every
time law enforcement agencies in Nevada County discover a marijuana-growing
operation, defense attorneys are quick to point out that the pot is being
grown for medicinal purposes.

Is no pot grown for recreational purposes in these parts any more? Or are
police just so unlucky that they can't find any marijuana that isn't needed
for medical purposes?

For all the joking, the mess surrounding medical marijuana points up the
need for a temporary fix with some local rules and longer-term fix with a
more clearly written state law.

The problem is this: The medical marijuana initiative approved by
California voters in 1996 is more loophole than law.

The law doesn't limit the amount of marijuana a person can have for medical
purposes. Is it five joints? Two ounces? A quarter-ton? A field of plants
extending to the horizon? There's not a word of guidance in the law.

Medical marijuana advocates say the law means what it says - there are no
limits - and any attempt to limit the amount of medical marijuana a person
can possess is a back-door attempt at repealing the law.

It's difficult to read the minds of the voters in 1996, but we suspect that
they had something more limited in mind than wide-open cultivation and
ownership of marijuana under the thin blanket of "medicinal use."

Nevada County prosecutors decided - arbitrarily, to be sure - that patients
can have two pounds of marijuana and 10 plants without fear of prosecution.

Now growers cooperatives, which say they serve several patients, have
sprung up. They have far greater number of plants than the 10 allowed under
the earlier guidelines.

The district attorney's office is rethinking its limits on cooperative
pot-growing ventures, and that's good. We'd suggest that cooperatives that
want to stay on the right side of the law should simply call the DA's
office and tell prosecutors what they're doing. If they're not growing pot
for illegal recreational use, they shouldn't have any concerns about
running their operations openly.

The best answer, of course, is to present the question to the state's
voters again. If they want limits, they should say so directly. Otherwise,
the state's marijuana laws are becoming a joke.

How vague words make a bad law

The key part of the text of the Prop 215 reads:

"(State laws) relating to the cultivation of marijuana, shall not apply to
a patient, or to a patient's primary caregiver, who possesses or cultivates
marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written
or oral recommendation or approval of a physician."