Quick Hits (page 5)
He Thought his Medical pot was Legal -- Until he Reached the Airport
By: Marjie Lundstrom (Sacramento Bee)
Ron Brownlow of Roseville didn't make any secret of his medical marijuana use when he flew from Sacramento to San Diego earlier this year, but his candor at the airports proved costly.
He got busted.
Brownlow's legal predicament highlights the confusion -- make that the mess -- that remains in California over medical marijuana, and how much legitimacy its patients really have.
This was supposed to be clarified this year, with the signing of a new law by outgoing Gov. Gray Davis. The measure followed Proposition 215, the groundbreaking initiative passed by voters in 1996 that allowed medical use of marijuana. But upholding the law proved tricky as jurisdictions enacted their own guidelines, and it ran afoul of federal authorities.
The new law, which took effect in January, includes the creation of state-issued identification cards for medical marijuana patients and caregivers.
Those cards aren't out yet, but Brownlow, a 48-year-old former welder with debilitating back problems, figured he was good to go. He packed carefully for his post-holiday trip to San Diego to visit his daughter and grandson, bringing along his doctor's paperwork authorizing his use of the drug, which he says he smokes three to four times daily.
As he tells the story, he volunteered all this to a Transportation Security Administration screener at Sacramento International Airport. The worker summoned a supervisor and, after some consultation, Brownlow was allowed to check his bag and board the plane.
The return trip on began similarly. At the San Diego airport, he again identified himself as a medical marijuana patient to a TSA security worker, who also summoned a supervisor. But this time, the supervisor notified local authorities.
After being detained for about an hour by Harbor Police, whose jurisdiction includes the airport, he was issued a citation for misdemeanor possession. His medicine was confiscated.
"They told me, 'We don't recognize the medical marijuana law in San Diego,' " he said. "I started laughing. I couldn't believe it.
"How can a county not recognize a state law?"
Harbor Police Lt. Ken Franke confirmed the citation but said he was not allowed to discuss any "legal interpretation" of the incident. He referred all questions to the city attorney.
"It sounds like what the guy did with the best of conscience was to try to be upfront," Franke said.
Maria Velasquez of the San Diego city attorney's office referred me right back to the Harbor Police "regarding their policies." The case has been filed with the court, she said.
"We'll handle it like any other case," she said. "We'll review the case and give consideration to all of the circumstances, and that would, of course, include the defendant's medical documentation."
Advocates of medical marijuana say Brownlow's troubles are typical of what happened in the years following passage of Proposition 215. But the new law, they say, should have set everyone straight.
"This is B.S.," said Dale Gieringer of California's National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and an original sponsor of Prop. 215.
But other issues remain murky. Jeff Jones of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Collective said members are warned against taking medical marijuana aboard planes or out of state, as they risk falling under federal jurisdiction.
But whose?
TSA spokesman Brian Doyle said Friday that he's no lawyer, but "to the best of our knowledge, if it's legal in California, you can travel with it.
"Our job is to keep prohibited items off (airplanes), not illegal items," he said, suggesting I check with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
DEA spokeswoman Rogene Waite was curt: "Marijuana is illegal in the United States."
But what about airplanes flying within California?
"It's in the United States, isn't it?" she snapped, saying to check with the TSA -- which, of course, had already said the legality of medical marijuana was not its concern.
"I'm not a drug dealer or nothing," he said. "I'm just an average Joe who has a medical problem."
And now, it appears, a legal one, too.
Growin' Our Own (page 5)
U.S. Stuck in the Quagmire
By: Robert Hardaway
Every year, more than 400,000 Americans die as the result of tobacco use. Alcohol abuse results in the deaths of another 110,640 Americans, including 16,653 alcohol-related traffic deaths. Alcohol is a major factor in more than half of all homicides and rapes, 62 percent of assaults, and 30 percent of suicides. Illegal drug use causes another 3,562 deaths.
According to the Cato Institute, based on deaths per 100,000 users, "tobacco kills 650, alcohol 150, heroin 80, and cocaine 4."
If an observer from another planet - say, Mars - were to analyze these statistics, he might be surprised to learn that out of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, only the others are criminalized in the United States.
Our observer from Mars also might be startled to learn about the price Americans are prepared to pay to protect these 3,562 privileged Americans from taking drugs and possibly jeopardizing their health.
The expenditure of more than $80 billion annually to arrest and incarcerate hundreds of thousands of citizens, using large chunks of America's scarce jail capacity and necessitating the early release of murderers, rapists and child molesters. A Cook County, Illinois, prosecutor has described the devastating effect of the war on drugs. Whereas he once had a relatively light case load and could take to trial those charged with the most vicious and violent crimes, after the drug war began, he was so overloaded with drug cases that he had no choice but to award "giveaway" plea bargains to even the most violent of criminals.
The imposition of thousands of raids, searches and wiretaps on American citizens.
The forfeiture of billions of dollars of potential tax revenues to organized crime.
The commission of more than one-fifth of all property crime in the United States, amounting to billions of dollars annually, by addicts seeking money for drugs made artificially expensive by criminalization.
The corruption and undermining of our political system, particularly at the local level.
If our Martian were acquainted with ancient history, he might be tempted to observe that whoever these 3,562 drug-using Americans are, they launched more ships and mobilized more of society's resources than the legendary Helen of Troy.
Our observer would surely assume that the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of citizens and the expenditure of such a huge portion of the national treasure must surely have achieved tangible results. But he would have to be informed that while such efforts have indeed reduced drug imports by 5 percent, this modest "success" has perversely done nothing more than raise the price of drugs, increase the profit margin to drug dealers, and thereby send a signal to the drug producers to produce more drugs - with the result that the number of drug users has risen dramatically since the war on drugs was launched.
The word "quagmire" must surely have been invented to describe a war in which every "victory" constitutes a stinging defeat.
Our Martian might not be surprised by this consequence if he were also apprised of our experience during Prohibition (1919-1933). Like the modern-day drug prohibitionists, the alcohol prohibitionists focused solely on the undeniable deleterious effects of alcohol, rather than conducting a rational cost-benefit analysis of prohibition. In 1929, the Wickersham Prohibition Commission revealed not only that "crime had increased by 50 percent as a result of Prohibition" but that consumption of alcohol had perversely doubled during the Prohibition years. Even more discouraging was the revelation that the number of alcohol deaths skyrocketed by more than 400 percent during Prohibition.
Nevertheless, those accustomed to Prohibition in 1930 could not imagine its repeal. Sen. Morris Sheppard of Texas confidently asserted: "There is as much chance of repealing the 18th Amendment [prohibiting alcohol] as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail."
Although almost half of all Americans have used illegal drugs, those same Americans continue to favor drug prohibition - just as Americans in the 1920s overwhelmingly favored alcohol prohibition. But collective memories are often short, and many Americans today assume that drugs were originally criminalized in the United States as a means of protecting the health and safety of its citizens.
Au contraire.
In the early 20th century, labor leader Samuel Gompers set forth his reasons to Congress why opium should be criminalized: "Opium gives the Chinese immigrant workers an unfair advantage in the labor market."
Racists in Congress supported drug criminalization in order to suppress the "Jew peddlers," while the State Department's "opium commissioner," Hamilton Wright, urged criminalization of cocaine on grounds that it turned African-Americans into rapists of white women.
On such specious and racist foundations were drugs criminalized. (It is perhaps not an irony that today, at a time when African-Americans struggle for economic opportunities, they make up 90 percent of those actually prosecuted and incarcerated for minor drug offenses. The devastating impact on the families, social fabric, and economic opportunities for African-Americans is virtually impossible to measure.)
Indeed, drugs were considered only a "minor medical problem" prior to criminalization in 1914. In the 1920s, Congressman Richard Hobson was one of the first to realize the specious justifications for criminalization and its terrible consequences: "Ten years ago [before criminalization] the narcotic drug addiction problem was a minor medical problem. Today, it is a major national problem, constituting the chief factor menacing public health today."
Just as alcohol deaths skyrocketed during Prohibition, drug deaths increased after criminalization, since illegal drugs are not subject to orderly regulation for purity and safety. But the largest number of deaths is due to drug criminalization itself. More than 1,600 murders occur every year by drug dealers who take advantage of the profit opportunities afforded by drug criminalization.
But what would happen if drugs were decriminalized? Prior to 1914, drugs were legal in the United States but constituted a very minor problem in society. Hundreds of over-the-counter products (such as Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup and many popular soft drinks, including Coca-Cola) contained drugs which have since been criminalized. But, as researcher Ethan Nadelman has noted, "Free access did not lead to widespread use. No drug houses blighted neighborhoods, no drug gangs had street-corner shootouts, and 'drug-related' crime did not exist."
Doctors even prescribed opium as a treatment for a disease considered substantially more harmful than drug addiction: alcoholism. That scenario changed drastically after criminalization.
Why did drug use increase so dramatically after criminalization? As conservative economist Milton Friedman's comprehensive drug study has revealed, the very fact that a drug is illegal makes it attractive as a "forbidden fruit." This explains why marijuana use by high school students is considerably higher in the United States than in Holland, where such drugs are available in coffeehouses.
If the untold deaths and crushing taxation required to conduct the drug war were not sufficient reasons to rethink drug criminalization, the fact that it supports and fosters organized crime should at least give pause. As the Block study concludes, "Better to ruin [organized crime's] profit balloon than by acting in a way which only supports them."
The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 left organized crime in danger of extinction. The continued prohibition of drugs saved its hide, and it has thrived ever since.
One can only imagine how the billions spent on incarcerating people for minor drug offenses might be used to rehabilitate, educate and treat drug victims.
Prior to 1922, 16 states criminalized the use of cigarettes, but it didn't work. Tobacco use skyrocketed, the states lost tax revenues, and organized crime had a field day. Contrast this aborted attempt at criminalization of tobacco use with the education and rehabilitation campaign begun by the surgeon general in 1965: Between 1965 and 1987, tobacco consumption by adult males declined by 36 percent. If harm were the sole justification for prohibition, cigarettes - which are the cause of 400,000 deaths a year - should be at the top of the list.
By ignoring the lessons of cigarette and alcohol prohibition, we are repeating the mistakes of the past and becoming mired in the real quagmire of our time.
[Ed. Note: Note: Robert Hardaway is a professor of law at the University of Denver College of Law and the author of 'No Price Too High: Victimless Crimes and the Ninth Amendment' (Praeger Publishers, 2003).]
Pipeline (page 5)
Store for Medical pot Opens in Roseville
By: Art Campos and Jocelyn Wiener (Sacramento Bee)
A medical marijuana store has quietly opened its doors in Roseville, after a new law took effect permitting qualified patients and caregivers to cultivate the plant.
Owner Richard Marino and his friends held a small christening ceremony on January 22 inside the freshly painted, sparsely furnished storefront that now houses Capitol Compassionate Care.
"People need a safe environment where they can get their medical marijuana, so they don't have to get it on the streets, and they can get quality for a reasonable price," Marino said. "Hopefully, this can cut down on street trafficking."
But whether the new "cannabis club" will be allowed to remain open may depend on which law-enforcement agency is looking at it.
Roseville Police Chief Joel Neves said Marino can operate as long as he complies with laws derived from Proposition 215, which was approved by voters in 1996 to permit the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
"Clearly, the law passed by the voters allows this type of business," Neves said. "These businesses exist throughout the state."
But Richard Meyer, a special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Francisco, indicated the Roseville club could have a short run.
"Federal law is clear about marijuana: It is illegal to cultivate, possess or distribute it," Meyer said. "So if that club is selling marijuana, it's going to be in violation of federal law.
"Just because (the Roseville club) is in operation doesn't mean it's legitimate or that we condone it. They should not be surprised if one day we show up with a warrant at their door."
Meyer said closing cannabis clubs has been difficult because of staff shortages.
"Right now, our number one priority in California is methamphetamines," he said.
The Placer County District Attorney's Office declined to comment on Marino's business.
Advocates of medical marijuana were pleased that Marino had opened his business.
Dale Gieringer, coordinator for the California chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, said, "That's good news for people in the foothills area."
"There are a lot of cannabis facilities in the state, but right now they are heavily concentrated in the Bay Area," he said. "I'm sure many people will be pleased to drive a shorter distance now."
Sacramento-area users of medicinal marijuana have generally relied on underground "delivery services." The services are listed on NORML's Web site.
Marino, a 50-year-old former electrician, said he drove throughout Yolo, Sacramento and Placer counties for months before discovering the little storefront at 327 Lincoln St. in historic Roseville.
He said he talked to police, the city attorney and the district attorney before applying for and receiving a business license.
On its opening day, a barely perceptible perfume of marijuana hovered in the air of the mostly empty store.
On one wall, prices and varieties of marijuana were listed on a white board: Romulan -- $320 an ounce; White Rhino -- $300 an ounce; Acapulco Gold -- $275 an ounce; and Placer Gold -- just $200 an ounce.
Marino explained the differences -- some are uplifting, some sedative, some grown indoors, some outside. He grows some of the plants himself and buys the remainder from friends.
Marijuana has been used for people who have suffered from glaucoma or who have undergone chemotherapy or advanced HIV treatment.
Marino just sells pre-measured plastic bags, but said he hopes eventually to offer people starter plants and classes on how to grow their own. Public reaction to his endeavor has been positive, he said.
"They're happy that I'm here -- that somebody's finally taking a chance," he said. "With any business, you just open the door, step out there and see if it'll fly. And hopefully, this will fly."
Marino became interested in medicinal marijuana about a decade ago, after a series of automobile and workplace accidents -- and corresponding back and neck surgeries -- left him in increasingly debilitating pain.
Doctors prescribed strong painkillers and sleeping pills that gave Marino severe allergic reactions and left him dazed. Without the pills, his pain was shooting, intense, constant and aggravating, he said.
Then a friend recommended Marino try marijuana.
"The short-term memory effect cuts that pain, breaks it into increments so you're not dealing with pain constantly," he said.
About two years ago, Marino, a resident of Rancho Cordova, decided he wanted to share the abundance of relief he had discovered with others in the region.
Senate Bill 420, which went into effect Jan. 1 and calls for identity cards for qualified patients and caregivers and also allows them to collectively cultivate marijuana, hadn't been proposed yet, but Marino was ready to take a chance.
"I started looking for a place to rent," he said. "About 20 places said they'd rent, then the next morning would call and say they couldn't rent."
While building owners were often sympathetic, their lawyers and insurers were not. Neither, it seemed, were the Realtors who wouldn't return Marino's calls.
In the first week his shop has been open -- the hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily -- clients have been relatively few but, he said, enthusiastic.
"I'd like to open another in Sacramento," he said. "I really think this is what's needed."
Marino's store is not the first try at establishing a marijuana distribution center in the region under Proposition 215. A cannabis club in Citrus Heights was shut down last year by law enforcement officials, and the owners of FloraCare were arrested and convicted for conspiracy to sell marijuana.
In El Dorado County, a group led by a physician is working with authorities to establish a collective garden to grow marijuana for medical purposes.
Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, who authored SB 420, which would make the garden possible, has taken the position that medical marijuana is not addictive.
"We know that all kinds of addictive substances have appropriate medical use," said his chief of staff, Sue North.
"Heroin and morphine are used and derivatives of cocaine are used in dentistry. We know it can benefit a patient."
Medical marijuana convictions appeals assistance in California. Recorded medical conditions only, with or without a doctor's recommendation. For details contact William McPike.
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