Articles Posted in California Marijuana

Conceding that the decades-old war on drugs has had unintended consequences and led to the “decimation of certain communities, in particular communities of color,” the U.S. Attorney General said it’s time for a major drug sentencing overhaul.

Our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers understand Holder’s remarks were made during a recent interview with NPR in which the reporter asked about his current and future priorities. While Holder discussed issues of national security and voting rights, he also said that, in his view, far too many people had been jailed for too long and for reasons that didn’t make good sense.

He clarified that he was primarily referring to those serving long sentences for non-violent, drug-related crimes.

Holder’s support of sentencing reform comes on the heels of the recent introduction of several bipartisan proposals that would empower judges to chop prison time for certain kinds of offenses. Some of the measures suggest doing away with minimum mandatory sentences altogether for certain crimes.

Holder said his office has had a team of federal attorneys working quietly for the last several months at the U.S. Justice Department on a series of proposals regarding sentencing reform that he might soon present to the American Bar Association.

Some of the proposals have already been made public, and they include actions that Holder could potentially enact on his own without legislative approval. For example, he could instruct federal prosecutors not to pursue low-level drug crimes. He could also direct an increase of funds to help drug defendants receive treatment, as opposed to hefty prison sentences.

Almost half of the nearly 220,000 people currently serving time in federal prison are there for some type of drug-related offense.

Holder said it’s time that enforcement priorities change. In order to do that on a broader scale, he said the cooperation of the judicial, executive and legislative branches of government will be critical. He wants to gain the approval of all three before moving forward on some of the more sweeping sentencing reform measures.

One measure that could bring all three together is one proposed by a Democrat from Illinois and a Republican from Utah. It’s called the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2013, and it would allow judges a greater amount of discretion in the sentences they hand out for non-violent criminals. Mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug-related crimes would also be slashed under the law, which in turn would reduce problems that California and several other states have had regarding prison overcrowding. (At the national level, estimates are that the prison system is operating at nearly 40 percent over capacity.)

In a letter to the U.S. Sentencing Commission last month, Justice Department Officials indicated that the way we view incarceration on the whole needs to be reevaluated. Budgets are finite and prisons have power that should only be used sparingly. The ultimate goal, officials say, should be to reduce rates of recidivism and successfully reintroduce people back into society.

As it now stands, violent crimes are lower than ever, yet federal prison costs consume more than a fourth of the Justice Department’s entire budget.

Of course, while all of this sounds very good, making it a reality is something we don’t expect will happen over night.

If such efforts are successful, it would be the first major push toward sentencing reform since the response to the crack epidemic of the 1980s.
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The governor of Illinois has just approved legislation that grants legalized access to medical marijuana, making it the 20th state in the nation to do so. Our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers know this means almost 40 percent of Americans now live in a place where pot as medicine is legal.

Although California was the first, its system hasn’t always proven the best in some regards. Many other states and municipalities have chosen to learn by the example set here, either for better or worse.

The movement shows no signs of stopping.

Here, we offer some insight into where things stand on the national medical marijuana front. It’s not unreasonable to believe that by 2016, more than half of all states could offer legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes.

First, we’ll start with Illinois, which joined the medical marijuana circle on Aug. 1, with Gov. Pat Quinn signing House Bill 1 into law. Marijuana isn’t immediately available to patients in need, but the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act establishes the framework necessary to protect physicians and certain patients from arrest and prosecution for the approval, possession and use of the drug.

The bill was approved 35-21 by the state House in April and by a vote of 61-57 in the Senate the following month. The bill will sunset in four years, and is considered one of the most stringent marijuana laws on the books. Patients won’t be allowed to cultivate the drug themselves, but they will qualify to possess up to 2.5 ounces over the course of a two-week period. They will be allowed to access the drug by purchasing it from one of the 60 registered dispensing organizations.

And late last month in New England, New Hampshire became the sixth and final state in that region to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. The state follows Massachusetts and Connecticut in 2012, Rhode Island in 2006, Vermont in 2004 and Maine in 1999.

Looking ahead, pro-marijuana advocates in Florida are pushing for a 2014 ballot measure that would allow approval of the drug. There, as one attorney pointed out, people have been given more time for marijuana crimes than murder. Similar ballot initiatives have failed before in the sunshine state. However, this one has both the legal and political muscle of mega-law firm Morgan & Morgan, a huge Democratic political fundraiser, as well as the United for Care group. When asked how much he would be willing to spend on the effort, John Morgan replied, “As much as it takes.”

In Ohio, a ballot measure is currently underway to approve recreational use of marijuana. Advocates are hoping to get the measure before voters in the 2014 elections. Called the Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment, it will be the third time such a measure has been voted upon. But as we’ve seen with so many other places, even historically conservative areas are seeing a change in attitude regarding the drug.

So far in that region of the Midwest, only Michigan (and now Illinois) permit the legal use of medical marijuana.
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Last spring, Daniel Chong was a student studying engineering at the University of California in San Diego when he went to a house near campus to smoke some marijuana.

It was recreational, yes, and therefore illegal under both federal and state law.

However, our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers know that what happened next, attributable at least in part to the blind aggression of the US. Drug Enforcement Administration, was unforgivable.

Chong was one of a number of people swept up in a DEA raid.

He was arrested and brought to the DEA facility in San Diego. There he was questioned for a time, and then told he would be released.

Instead, he spent five days trapped in a windowless, 5-foot-by-10-foot cell. He was without food or water. He screamed for help, and no one came. He kicked the door, he punched the walls. He tried to trigger the fire sprinkler. He took the shoelaces off his shoe and shoved them out the crack of the door – anything he could think of to reveal some visual cue to outsiders that he was still there.

On the third day, he began to hallucinate. He drank his own urine.

He broke his eye glasses by biting them and carved into his arm the words, “Sorry Mom.”

By the time he was found, he had lost 15 pounds. His kidneys were failing. He was covered in feces and urine. He was having trouble breathing. He was rushed to the hospital.

Officials with the DEA now say it was a “horrible accident.” They have offered an apology and launched an extensive review, which ultimately resulted in new procedures calling for cameras in all holding cells, which are now equipped with windows.

The federal government agency also declined to press charges and will now be paying him more than $4 million for the ordeal he suffered.

The case is extreme, but it reveals yet another near-casualty of this failed war on drugs.

In 2012, some 21,000 people were arrested on California marijuana charges, according to the latest figures released by the California Attorney General’s Office in its 2012 Crime Report.

The report revealed some 13,500 felony marijuana arrests, which represents a slight downward trend from what we saw in 2011, when felony marijuana arrests in California topped 14,000.

The most-arrested ethnic group were Hispanics, with nearly 5,000 felony marijuana arrests. They were followed by whites, with 4,600 arrests, blacks with more than 2,700 arrests and other races with more than 1,100 arrests.

Felony marijuana-related arrests of juveniles remained about the same, at around 1,675, accounting for about 12.5 percent of the total.

Misdemeanor marijuana arrests plummeted in 2011, following a new law that made possession of under an ounce an infraction, rather than a crime. Infractions aren’t tallied by the attorney general’s office.

Still, there were nearly 7,800 misdemeanor marijuana arrests in 2012, which was almost the same number as there were in 2011. Compare that to misdemeanor marijuana arrests in 2010 in California, which were nearly 55,000.
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Part of the whole premise of marijuana prohibition is that it is a way to protect youth from being lured into the downward spiral of addiction.

In fact, our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers understand that both anecdotal and statistical evidence suggest the exact opposite – decriminalization of marijuana is positive for kids, while zero-tolerance policies end up, as one editorial put it, “threatens the chances of success and opportunity for an entire generation of young people.”

For example, you have undercover stings in high schools that result in teens being removed from school and their jobs to face criminal sanctions. In Florida, for example, an 18-year-old honors student is facing a felony charge for distribution of a Schedule I narcotic for selling an undercover officer $25 worth of marijuana. In Massachusetts, another high school student was given two years for selling a single marijuana joint to an undercover officer.

Then you have even more tragic cases. For example, a 17-year-old Virginia high school student was twice arrested for possession of marijuana at school. He was first expelled and sent to a different school. After the second offense, a hearing was set to determine what would happen this time. The night before, he committed suicide.

And in Washington, a 22-year-old student who took the drug (albeit without a prescription) to calm anxiety related to a potentially fatal dairy allergy, turned himself in to police for missing a court date for a minor marijuana violation at his mother’s suggestion. Police took him into custody and, while there, he was fed oatmeal containing dairy. When he tried to tell the guards he was having a reaction, they ignored him. He died.

Consider that in 28 states, a student convicted of marijuana possession can be denied federal and state financial aid for college for more than a year. How is society benefiting from this?

Yet despite the fact Washington and Colorado may have beaten California to the punch of outright recreational legalization, our state may still be considered a success story.

In late 2010, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure that, while falling short of total decriminalization for recreational use, downgraded possession of less than an ounce from a misdemeanor to an infraction. This makes the offense punishable by a $100 fine, and no jail time. SB 1449 took effect Jan. 1, 2011.

Many weren’t sure what the ultimate outcome of this would be, and many naysayers predicted that juvenile addiction crime rates would shoot up. In fact, the opposite has occurred, according to new research by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco.

The study, titled “California Youth Crime Plunges to All-Time Low,” charted the number of under-18 offenders arrested in California over the course of the last 80 years. What they found was that juvenile crime is at its lowest level ever – 20 percent below what it was in 1954.

Since SB 1449 took effect, the drop-off was even more dramatic. In that one-year time frame alone, juvenile arrests for violent crimes fell by 16 percent. Murders were down by nearly 30 percent. Drug offenses dropped by half.

Drug arrests were down in every category, but for marijuana in particular, the effect of the bill was especially pronounced, as prior to that, nearly 65 percent of all juvenile drug arrests involved marijuana. After the bill passed, it was down to 46 percent.

True, crime is down everywhere, but it was a far faster drop in California. The study authors cited two primary reasons for this:

• The improvements in the overall economic situation of California’s youth population;
• The loosened restrictions on marijuana laws.

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Following a federal subpoena issued to Mendocino County for marijuana program records kept by the local sheriff, county officials are seeking outside legal advice.

Our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers understand that the county is being pressed by local residents as well as marijuana advocates not to simply hand the records over, but instead to fight the request in court.

The board of supervisors recently met in a closed door session to discuss the matter with the county attorney, and reports indicate the county is trying to find out what their liability is if they refuse.

The federal government has requested records from the program, but have so far refused to say what their interest in those records might be. Speculation has been that they intend to prosecute those who were participating in the program legally under state law.

This has been a big part of the contention regarding the demand. Because the subpoena does not list specifics, it appears overly-broad. As one district supervisor worded it, it is the “kitchen sink approach.” That is, federal prosecutors are requesting “everything but the kitchen sink” in the hopes of finding some evidence of criminal activity that may stick.

That’s not how criminal investigations are supposed to work.

The closed-door meeting among county officials earlier this month followed nearly an hour of public comment from those involved in the local medical marijuana industry. They want the county to withhold from federal authorities any personal information about those who paid the county in order to obtain permits for their collectives. Such permits allowed participants to cultivate a maximum of 99 plants. They also allowed growers to obtain zip ties, which indicated their crops were grown lawfully in accordance with state and local regulations.

This arrangement worked well for everyone involved, and raked in a fair amount of money for the local government. Then in March, the U.S. Attorney’s Office threatened to slap an injunction on the county’s marijuana grow ordinance, while simultaneously pursuing legal against individual county officials who had supported it.

The county immediately ended the program.

One of the supervisors speculated at that public meeting that the federal government was not so much after those who had permits, but instead wanted to confiscate the money that the county had collected under the program, adding, “That does not sit well with me.”

The subpoena was issued in late October, and was for “any and all records” relating to the county’s medical marijuana grow ordinance from the beginning of 2010 to the present. This includes financial records.

Case law on such matters has been spotty. A federal subpoena for the records of nearly two dozen patients in Oregon was quashed in 2007, when that state’s attorney general successfully defended patients’ privacy rights. But then last year, the Justice Department was able to get records of half-dozen medical marijuana patients from the Michigan Department of Community Health.

Here in California, Attorney General Kamala Harris hasn’t yet made a public comment on the Mendocino County subpoena.

The county has requested an extension, and has until the second week of January 2013 to respond.
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Just hours after hearing the first oral arguments in an appellate case that could well reclassify marijuana as a drug with valid medicinal properties, the judges requested a supplemental brief.

Los Angeles marijuana lawyers see this as an encouraging sign that the justices are taking this seriously, and not simply going through the motions to approve the federal government’s stance on the matter.

As of right now, marijuana is a Schedule I substance. What this means is that it is considered to have no legitimate, redeeming medical qualities, and for the purposes of federal enforcement, is considered to be one of the most dangerous drugs available. Despite the fact that numerous states, California being the first, have approved the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, the federal government not only refuses to budge on this issue, they continue to clamp down on peaceful patients and law-abiding dispensaries providing a valuable service.

This case, as we’ve previously written, stems from a complaint by a U.S. Air Force Veteran who was denied Veteran’s Affairs disability benefits because of his use of medical marijuana for chronic pain. Without access to medical marijuana, his attorneys are arguing that he risks destabilization of his entire health condition.

Reclassifying marijuana as a drug with valid medicinal purposes would have the added effect of crippling the federal government’s current efforts to criminally prosecute patients and dispensaries for use, cultivation and sale.

The supplemental brief ordered by the court requests that the plaintiff provide the court with more details about how the veteran was harmed as a result of the government’s refusal to recognize the medicinal properties and value of marijuana. Plaintiff attorneys had argued during the first day that the denial of treatment and health benefits from the VA due to his marijuana use has contributed to a decline in health.

The court as asked the Americans for Safe Access, who are representing the plaintiff, to “clarify and amplify” the assertions made by the veteran, and also to fully explain exactly the nature of the injury that allows him to bring the claim. They will be allowed a maximum of five days to produce this.

Millions of Americans rely on medical marijuana for a wide range of ailments. They obtain the drug through dispensaries that only provide it to those who have been given a prescription from a medical doctor.

Physicians in Colorado recently appealed to voters who will soon decide whether to entirely decriminalize use of the drug, saying that not only are there clear medical values, but there is an inherent harm that occurs by prosecuting non-violent marijuana users.

Previously efforts to defend dispensaries and patients prosecuted in criminal court have been stymied by the blocking of information regarding the medicinal value of the drug. This decision could change all that.

It comes at a critical time, particularly for dispensaries and patients in California, who have endured a barrage of assaults by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, seeking to shut down lawful dispensaries, in spite of President Barack Obama’s promises not to make these facilities a priority.
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The fact that the Los Angeles City Council bowed to the political pressure by marijuana activists to repeal the pot shop ban shows how increasingly organized and well-funded the movement is becoming.

Our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers know that it was the ballot measure, sought by the activists to repeal the measure in the March election, that halted the implementation of the ban last month and ultimately resulted in city council members scrapping it altogether.

The advocates were instrumental in collecting tens of thousands of signatures – far more than even necessary – to qualify the March ballot measure to repeal the ban.

Part of it may have been a twist of fate, as the mayor’s seat as well as eight city council positions are on the upcoming November ballot. One councilman in particular, Bill Rosendahl, may have also been instrumental in the council’s decision. A marijuana patient who is fighting a rare cancer, he pleaded with his colleagues to answer the question of how patients like him would be able to obtain the drug if the ban remained as is.

Of course, none of this stops the federal medical marijuana crackdown that has been initiated by the U.S. attorney’s office, but it may be a foreshadowing of changing opinions as case after case is litigated through state courts. Although a medical marijuana case has yet to make it to the U.S. Supreme Court (or even the California Supreme Court, for that matter) that may be where all this is ultimately decided.

While it is the courts’ job to remain insulated from political pressure of any kind, the state law on the issue is quite clear, and the federal interference has consistently violated the rights of the people, as set forth by the electorate.

We know that those who support medical marijuana accessibility have expressed a deep disappointment in President Barack Obama, whose promises not to interfere with dispensaries obeying state law have fallen flat. But regardless of whether that will be enough to sway the November presidential election, the city council’s decision on the local ban shows that medical marijuana backers do have strong political clout.

It’s undoubtedly been a challenge four counties and municipalities to strike a balance between state and federal law, the latter of which makes it a crime to sell marijuana for any reason.

And even though the ban is gone, some council members are vowing to use other laws to target dispensaries. For example, one councilman is calling out to the city attorney’s office to go after storefront marijuana shops that are in violation of city zoning laws, as marijuana dispensaries are not on the list of approved land uses.

Additionally, city council members have requested clarification from state legislatures to address what they say are inadequacies in the law. The city had already tried to enact a moratorium, but that measure was unsuccessful and many shops proliferated even after that measure was passed. That was in 2007. Since then, there have been more than 100 lawsuits filed on behalf of dispensaries and pot shop owners, some of those by THE CANNABIS LAW GROUP.

We are committing to continuing to fight aggressively for our clients and those whom they aim to serve.
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As local and federal officials continue their assault on law-abiding medical marijuana dispensaries and patients, another problem is washing ashore.

Maritime marijuana – cleverly dubbed “Seaweed” by the local public radio affiliate – has been found in boats and in bales along the Southern California coastline with increasing regularity in recent months.

Los Angeles marijuana lawyers would point out that given that these incidents are almost certainly indicative of a growing international drug-smuggling problem, it seems curious that the U.S. government wouldn’t shift its focus toward these issues, rather than continuing to target legal domestic marijuana grow and distribution shops, which can be taxed – and regulated – by local and state authorities.

According to authorities with the U.S. Coast Guard, a recent maritime marijuana seizure marked a 50-ton milestone for the border region this fiscal year. In all, there have been 56 marijuana boat seizures or abandoned boats discovered since the beginning of October last year – around the same time that the feds began their crack down on California’s marijuana dispensaries.

This is not a coincidence. When you cut off the supply of locally and legally-grown pot, it forces people to go underground to get their medication. It’s not rocket science, and yet, the feds haven’t seemed to figure this out, despite the repeated warnings.

The Coast Guard says this is four times the amount seized by this time last year.

All total, it’s about $91 million worth of marijuana.

The most recent happened about 160 miles off the coast of Los Angeles in the Pacific Ocean. That’s where authorities found a boat with 8,500 pounds of marijuana, estimated to be worth nearly $8 million. The marijuana was clustered into about 340 bales and was found on a Mexican “panga,” which is a small boat that is often used by smugglers to move several-ton loads of everything from weed to illegal immigrants from Baja.

Around the same time, officials in Santa Barbara County intercepted a smuggling boat that reportedly contained 300 bales of marijuana that contained more than 6,600 pounds. Thirteen men, including four U.S. citizens, were also arrested in this incident. Authorities say this haul had an estimated street value of about $10 million, though it’s not clear why there is a price discrepancy between this and the bigger haul near Los Angeles.

Coast Guard officials, working with interdiction teams with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were quoted as saying that these drugs only represent a small fraction of the smuggling that’s going on, and further stated that the money raked in from this type of trafficking is the fuel for other crimes, particularly those involving violence.

We know, however, that medical marijuana has been proven in recent studies to have no negative affect whatsoever with regard to crime. The difference between this operation and legitimate dispensaries is the culture surrounding them. Illegal drug smugglers are often additionally involved in crimes like human trafficking and gun violence.

It would not be a shocker if we began to see an increase in these types of crimes as well, directly as a result of government shutting down legal marijuana dispensaries, as opposed to working with them to ensure the supply isn’t obtained underground or illegally.
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