City & County sues Fed: Medical pot

[Chewbacca]

This old issue, again. So is it the states rights as determined by the voters, or the Feds prerogative?

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articl...calpot-ON.html

SAN JOSE - A Drug Enforcement Administration raid on a farm that cultivated pot for ailing patients was both illegal and immoral, medical marijuana supporters argued at the start of a federal trial Monday. The trial comes three months after the city and county of Santa Cruz sued the federal government over the raid, demanding that agents stay away from a farm that grows marijuana on a quiet coastal road about 15 miles north of the city. In September, agents uprooted about 165 plants and arrested the owners of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana. The lawsuit claims that seven patients have had their marijuana intake substantially decreased since the raid, and that the farm has been unable to provide members with necessary medicine to relieve nausea, pain and other chronic conditions. This has caused an "insurmountable" level of pain and suffering and hastened the deaths of the most vulnerable patients, lawyers said. "We are not asserting the right to market marijuana, but to cultivate and use it to prolong life and give comfort to the dying," said Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, who represents about 200 chronically and terminally ill people. "We are asserting the fundamental rights of patients ... so they can meet their death without agony and suffering." The case pits state rules on medical marijuana against federal laws declaring it an illegal drug, and it marks the first time a public entity has sued the federal government on behalf of patients who need medical marijuana. Marijuana is illegal under federal law. State law in California and seven other states allows marijuana to be grown and distributed to people with a doctor's recommendation. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May 2002 that people charged with violating federal drug laws cannot use medical necessity as their defense. But Uelmen said the justices left open whether states could legalize medical marijuana under the 10th Amendment, which grants states powers not exercised by the federal government, or under the 14th Amendment's right to due process. The case also hinges in part on whether the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause applies to the California farm. The clause gives Congress power to regulate trade between states. Justice Department lawyer Mark Quinlivan said that any type of drug trade was an interstate issue, emphasizing that only the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can conduct experiments using illegal drugs. "There isn't anyone here who doesn't have a friend or relative in ... dire straits," Quinlivan told a courtroom packed with people in wheelchairs or suffering from epilepsy, post-polio syndrome and terminal cancer. But, he said, "the FDA drug approval process has served this country well over the years." U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel promised to review hundreds of pages of evidence, and is expected to issue a ruling later this summer.

I'm definitely on the states rights side in this issue. Medical pot was approved by referendum of the people of California. The Federal goverment should spend the money used to persecute these people on catching Osama Bin Ladin or something.

When will we finally be fed up with the unwarranted intrusions on our persons by the goverment? And when the error of the goverment's ways are finally realized, can we sue them for damages?

[antryg]

Clever work by the DEA resulted in them finding this farm. They had to be able to read articles in the paper and the fact that it was known to every level of state government. This astounding ability to read (and pad drug busts stats) and once again show the world that the Federal government decides everything should really enhance our image throughout the world. Watch out world! We will even invade one of our own states if it ticks off the feds.

[Chewbacca]

LOL antryg!!! [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Thanks for turning a crying shame into a good laugh!

[Chewbacca]

Seems the judge in this case wants to help in any way he can:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...08/BA97315.DTL

A San Jose federal judge, expressing sympathy for the suffering of terminally ill patients, asked medical marijuana advocates Monday for a legal "hook" to grant an injunction halting federal raids against a free Santa Cruz pot cooperative. During arguments before U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, patient advocates said their case was unique among federal-state pot skirmishes. It is the first time local government officials have joined in a legal battle to stop federal drug agents from raiding a medical marijuana operation. In this case, officials of the city and county of Santa Cruz have joined in seeking to stop a repeat of the controversial September crackdown on Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, during which the cooperative's entire 2002 pot crop was seized. Fogel said he was moved by accounts of how 15 patients had swiftly and painfully died since the raid deprived them of their pain-relieving pot, but he warned that federal law and court precedents don't allow exceptions for marijuana use even for medical necessity. In December, Fogel rejected a request by WAMM founders Mike and Valerie Corral to force the federal government to return the 160 pot plants that were seized. "Frankly, I'm looking for a hook that's very different from the one I've looked at and been forced to reject," said Fogel, who vowed to issue a quick ruling on the injunction request. "I would need something new and different other than someone saying: 'Judge you got it wrong last time.' " County of Santa Cruz vs. Ashcroft names Attorney General John Ashcroft, federal drug czar John Walters and the Drug Enforcement Administration as defendants. WAMM advocates call the federal government's ban on medical pot an illegal "crusade to disrupt WAMM's lawful activities and to deprive these patients of their medicine," protected by Proposition 215, the state's 1996 voter-approved medical marijuana initiative. "What we're asserting here is the basic, fundamental right of local government and state government to control the health and safety of its citizens," Santa Clara University law Professor Gerald Uelmen, a member of WAMM's legal team, said after the hourlong hearing packed by patients and their supporters. He called the cooperative a model program for chronically and terminally ill patients who freely grow and share their crop. The Corrals had been deputized by city officials to run the marijuana cooperative. In a city where a whopping 81 percent of voters backed Prop. 215, the federal bust sparked a firestorm of protest. Within days, local elected leaders defied the federal government by joining 1,000 residents at a medicinal pot giveaway in the City Hall courtyard. Federal attorneys are pushing for a dismissal of the case against them, stating in court papers that federal narcotics laws override state law, and "there is no fundamental right to distribute, cultivate, or possess marijuana or other unapproved and unproven medical treatments." During Monday's hearing, Uelmen invoking the 15 patient deaths. "There's no question that those deaths were more agonizing, they were more painful than they needed to be because of an inability of WAMM to respond fully to the patients needs for medical marijuana," he said. Co-Counsel Neha Nissen also argued that the program stands outside federal jurisdiction over interstate drug trafficking, because the patients are raising the plants for local personal use, and no pot is sold. U.S. Department of Justice senior counsel Mark Quinlivan said WAMM's creative arguments ignored years of rock-solid court precedents affirming federal narcotics laws. "What the Supreme Court made quite clear is that there's no medical necessity exception in the Controlled Substances Act," Quinlivan argued. But WAMM patients and attorneys left court optimistic. "I think the judge is looking for hooks that have not been presented to the courts before and we have them in this case," Uelmen said.

[WillowIX]

LOL antryg.

Anyway, Ontario is now supposed to grow marijuana for medical use in an abandoned mine. Can't say I like it one bit. "You are NOT allowed to smoke marijuana except if... and if... and if.. and so forth". There must be several replacement treatments on the market today.

[Grendal]

Originally posted by WillowIX: LOL antryg. Anyway, Ontario is now supposed to grow marijuana for medical use in an abandoned mine. Can't say I like it one bit. "You are NOT allowed to smoke marijuana except if... and if... and if.. and so forth". There must be several replacement treatments on the market today.

This really makes me laugh. Didnt they try the cave thing a couple o years ago? It was a multi million dollar flop....low yeild....and just plain crappy pot. Everyone on the planet knows that BC grows the best weed in the world. Hell we ship out more high quality weed than we do lumber and thats supposed to be our #1 export! Why is the federal government wasting money on another experiment like this? Come to BC and ask a grower out here how to do it properly instead of creating another financial fiasco like the last one!

[Chewbacca]

Originally posted by WillowIX: LOL antryg. Anyway, Ontario is now supposed to grow marijuana for medical use in an abandoned mine. Can't say I like it one bit. "You are NOT allowed to smoke marijuana except if... and if... and if.. and so forth". There must be several replacement treatments on the market today.

Well, you have Marinal, a THC pill that just about every medical pot user has said is far from the same as a toke or having it baked. Either its gets them so high they pass out (which is very rare if smoking the stuff) or it makes them very nervous and paranoid. (which is a fairly rare side effect of smoking the stuff after a tolerance is formed, usually gone after just a few uses) Also Marinol multiplies the world famous pot munchies, causing excessive weight gain you don't usually get from smoking. It one thing to have your appetite stimulated, especially if you are wasting away from cancer and chemotherapy, it is another to have stomach knot forming hunger pains after you just ate.

Many treatments for migraines and aids/cancer waste have severe side effects that are non-existent from smoking pot. Nothing helps glacoma like pot does.

Compared to prescription drugs, the side effects from pot are tolerable, even enjoyable for some.

I think that pot professionals should grow the stuff for patients, so I can only hope the Canadian goverment is putting want ads in High Times.

edit- Here is a link to a wealth of medical pot info:
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3376

[ 07-10-2003, 11:37 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]