VICTORY! California resumes issuing medical marijuana ID cards

From an MPP email I just received...activists, pat yourselves on the back! This is great!


When California officials halted the medical marijuana registry two weeks ago, we urged you to take action. Well, your activism has paid off ... Eleven days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) Department of Health Services suspended the state's medical marijuana ID program and asked for legal advice from the attorney general, the program's up and running again. More than 550 of you mobilized to ask Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D) to quickly issue an opinion stating that the ID program does not aid and abet a federal crime and ordering it to reopen. And on Friday, Lockyer's office did just that.

The news gets better. In addition to restarting the program, Lockyer's opinion provides a clear explanation of why states can enact medical marijuana laws — including laws with registry ID cards. Lockyer wrote: "The federal government's decision to criminalize the use and possession of marijuana — for all purposes — does not require California to do the same." He quoted the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion that the "federal government may not compel the states to implement ... federal regulatory programs." These firm statements will help allay some of the fear and confusion caused by the Department of Health Services' and others' knee-jerk reactions to the Court's recent medical marijuana decision.

In addition to your efforts, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) deserves praise for its key role in securing a prompt resumption of the program. The ACLU threatened to sue the Department of Health Services if it did not resume its registry ID program by 5:00 p.m. today.

California's ID card program was just getting started when the Department of Health temporarily suspended it. Only 123 cards had been issued from three pilot counties at the time of suspension. Those three counties — Amador, Del Norte, and Mendocino — began issuing cards in June, and other counties are expected to follow suit on August 1. Unlike in most medical marijuana states, California's registry ID system is voluntary. Patients whose doctors recommend medical marijuana are protected from prosecution whether or not they have medical marijuana ID cards.

However, ID cards are a quick and easily verifiable means for patients to prove that they qualify under the state's medical marijuana law. Many patients find that the cards protect them from harassment and even arrest. The California bill that established the registry ID program explicitly provided that patients with ID cards are protected from arrest. However, courts have interpreted the vague language of California's medical marijuana initiative — Prop. 215 — to protect patients from conviction and to warrant a dismissal of charges, but not to completely protect patients from arrest.

Thanks again for your efforts and your support of the Marijuana Policy Project. We'll continue to keep you posted about the implementation of California's registry ID program and other marijuana policy reform developments.

Now if California will gain some sanity about pain medication as well as nausea, being sick or disabled in that state won't be such endless agony as my sister is enduring.

This country is INSANE when it comes to a beneficial plant like marijuana. Well, the leaders are, since most Americans want it legal, especially for medicine.

Good thoughts to you and your sister!

The state has no real say in the pain medication venue. Doctor's are worried about their DEA number and being prosecuted (civil or criminal) by the same. State prosecution almost never enters into the picture.

MJ was exactly difference, since the large majority of all MJ prosecutions and fines are done at the state level. W/O state help, it will be difficult for the feds to investigate the MJ cases.

Which is as it should be.

This is a victory, and we need all of those we can get. Show the thread a little love. :)

is a victory.

Can persons with california "cards" grow their own?

Can persons in alaska grow their own, even if the whole plant weights
more than 4 oz?

Like any proper herb, a herbalist in an ideal world keeps all the herbs
in a huge garden and uses them fresh, as much as fresh mint leaf tea
is a delight, and fresh cannabis smoke from an organic home grown bud
is entirely different from cannabis smoke from a bud grown in mexico
by a large criminal export/import operation.

Good news from MPP indeed! :party:

http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4525&wtm_view=medical

Senate Bill 420, which was signed into law in October 2003 and took effect on January 1, 2004, imposes statewide guidelines outlining how much medicinal marijuana patients may grow and possess. Under the guidelines, qualified patients and/or their primary caregivers may possess no more than eight ounces of dried marijuana and/or six mature (or 12 immature) marijuana plants. However, S.B. 420 allows patients to possess larger amounts of marijuana when such quantities are recommended by a physician. The legislation also allows counties and municipalities to approve and/or maintain local ordinances permitting patients to possess larger quantities of medicinal pot than allowed under the new state guidelines.

Senate Bill 420 also mandates the California Department of State Health Services to establish a voluntary medicinal marijuana patient registry, and issue identification cards to qualified patients. To date, however, no such registry has been established.

Senate Bill 420 also grants implied legal protection to the state's medicinal marijuana dispensaries, stating, "Qualified patients, persons with valid identification cards, and the designated primary caregivers of qualified patients ... who associate within the state of California in order collectively or cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes, shall not solely on the basis of that fact be subject to state criminal sanctions."

I remember when the feds raided a medical grow in Santa Cruz, where it's legal to grow for patients and where the police thus don't interfere. After it happened, the city allowed patients to pick up their medicine at city hall as a kind of "fuck you" to the feds, which I thought was fantastic.

If every person opposing the bush tyranny planted a marijuana seed
in their garden, the laws would have to change.

Very good news... Thanks for posting this, Zhade.

I helped a tiny bit with the lobbying effort, so I'm very very happy to hear this. And in just 11 days!