San Diego- At it again!

[Storm Crow]

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/16/news/sandiego/z902e5e7a37f7085788257540007cadfb.txt




REGION: County asks U.S. Supreme Court to erase state's medical marijuana law

By TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer

San Diego County filed papers this week asking the U.S. Supreme Court to erase California's medical marijuana law, arguing that federal prohibitions outlawing the substance supersede California's law allowing sick people to use it.

The county is asking the nation's highest court to overturn a state appellate court's July decision upholding the voter-approved law legalizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes.

"You have a conflict here between federal and state law, and we are in the middle," 5th District Supervisor Bill Horn said Friday. "What we have been asking all along is which takes precedence here. We will take it as far as we can take it and get a definitive answer."

Horn's district encompasses much of North County.

County officials sued the state in 2006, arguing that federal law that makes marijuana illegal should trump the 1996 passage of state Proposition 215, which legalized it for patients to use with a prescription. Patients who use marijuana say it helps them treat chronic pain.

In July, California's 4th District Court of Appeal handed medical marijuana users a victory when it rejected the county's contention that the state law flies in the face of federal pot prohibitions. The appellate court found that the purpose of the federal law "is to combat recreational drug use, not to regulate a state's medical practices."

In October, the California Supreme Court rejected the county's request that it review the ruling. That left the county with the option of asking the nation's highest court to step in.

San Diego Deputy County Counsel Tom Bunton said the U.S. Supreme Court might decide by June if it will take the case.

The county's filing was met with a thumbs down but no surprise from Adam Wolf, the lead attorney for medical marijuana patients opposed to the challenge. Wolf on Friday called the county's request "a waste" of taxpayers' money.

"This is an ill-fated and doomed lawsuit," Wolf said. "These are the same recycled arguments that have been rejected by the Superior Court, the Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court.

"With each day that San Diego does not comply with the state's medical marijuana laws, the medical marijuana patients needlessly suffer."

Wolf, with the American Civil Liberties Union, represents the San Diego chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. NORML is a defendant in the county's suit.

San Bernardino County, which has worked with San Diego during the battle, also filed a similar writ.

There also is a battle over a 2003 directive from state legislators calling for counties to create medical marijuana identification cards. Thus far, San Diego County has declined to issue such cards, even though the appellate court said in its July ruling that issuing the state-mandated cards would not put counties in conflict with federal law.

County attorney Bunton said "the state has not established any deadline whereby the counties have to begin issuing the ID cards."

Wolf said that as many as two-thirds of California's counties have started issuing ID cards to medical marijuana patients.

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-5442 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.






Maybe when the US Supreme Court refuses to review it, or does and tells them to "stuff it" in a few hundred pages of legalese, they'll get a clue!




Granny


__________________

 

[pHaroaH]

Maybe when the US Supreme Court refuses to review it, or does and tells them to "stuff it" in a few hundred pages of legalese, they'll get a clue!

Exactly!

I have been hoping they would file ASAP so that the Supreme Court can deal with issue once and for all. I hope they refuse to hear the appeal like in the Kha case. Either way the sooner this is dealt with, the sooner we can move on to the next battle. The legal process is frustratingly slow.

 

[Koroz]

Exactly!

I have been hoping they would file ASAP so that the Supreme Court can deal with issue once and for all. I hope they refuse to hear the appeal like in the Kha case. Either way the sooner this is dealt with, the sooner we can move on to the next battle. The legal process is frustratingly slow.

they already have told them to shove it, 3 times. That hasn't stopped San Diego county from refiling.

I posted the local news paper report in the same titled posted a few threads down from this one, they aren't going to stop until they get voted out or removed from office.

SD County needs to pull their head out.

 

[BiG H3rB Tr3E]

Dont expect anything to change in San Diego for the better. Bonnie Dumanis was always a hard opponent of medical cannabis, but at least she was semi-tolerant/understanding. I happened to run into her in San Marcos at the Applebee's and we had a long very respectable exchange of thoughts and what I took from her view was that she wasn't against medical patients, she was after the ones suppling. No matter how hard I tried to convince her that medical cannabis suppliers are a much needed entity in our community, she would not accept it.

During this time, a group of us would prepare each week for the city council meetings and our only opponent would be Damon Mosler (Chief of Narcotics San Diego) aka "GrandMaster SpinDoctor". He sat in front of the council and would account for all crimes in the area and sum it up to the fact there were all medical-cannabis related crimes. He would falsify numbers to show increased crime-rates as well as a number of other LEO scum tactics. Well, now Damon Mosler is the current district attourney of san diego and his resources has vastly improved. Recently, he filed cease and desist orders against the head shops located in East and North County San Diego. Most shops scoffed at the threat and continued operation only to be raided a week later by SDPD Narcotics Task Force and have all their merchandise confiscated.

San Diego has taken a very concrete stance in their view towards how they are going to treat cannabis and cannabis users, regardless of their status. I got up out of San Diego after losing a good friend to the battle and with the continued oppression through the local enforcement it only seemed right to leave. I still have a lot of great friends in the area, and it is a shame to see such a beautiful community forced into the underground. It was a community, and unity was the key, because alot of good went back into the area and the people and it kills me to see such ignorant monsters running and controlling the sanctity of such a wonderful and benefical program. I know one day things will be better, but I only pray that day comes sooner than later...

 

[durgamata]

I live in this sector, and the main Glass Shop still has their glass.

I guess they did not violate any rules. Just picked up a new glass bong for $45

 

[vta]

Authorities Smoke Out Water Bongs

Authorities Smoke Out Water Bongs

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n103/a01.html


AUTHORITIES SMOKE OUT WATER BONGS

Have you ever looked at California's bong law? Have you ever really looked at it?

Selling glass pipes and water bongs is perfectly legal in the state, so long as their intended use is for smoking tobacco and not pot. That difference in intent may seem like a fine line, but it can mean the difference between making a buck and being totally screwed. Just ask the owners of the seven East County smoke shops whose businesses were raided last week by police and sheriff's deputies.

Acting at the behest of San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, authorities on Jan. 21 served search warrants at shops in El Cajon, La Mesa and Santee. They seized an estimated 15,000 glass pipes, bongs and other items as part of an investigation into whether the owners violated the state's drug-paraphernalia laws.

None of the owners could be reached for comment by deadline, but an employee at one of the shops raided in El Cajon says authorities have it all wrong.

The DA's office "sent us a letter saying water pipes were illegal and that we needed to take them down, but they're not illegal," she says, declining to give her name. "We called the DA's office about that, but they never called us back. Then police came in and said, 'You didn't take the water pipes down, so we're seizing them.' We lost about $50,000 in merchandise."

Asked to comment on the employee's claim that the seized items were legal under state law, El Cajon Police Lt. Steve Shakowski cited California Health and Safety Code 11364.7, which states that selling paraphernalia for the purpose of ingesting illegal drugs is a misdemeanor. As to how authorities knew the items were going to be used to ingest illegal drugs and not tobacco, Shakowski was blunt:

"I've been a cop for 25 years and worked narcotics for 11 of those years," he says. "During that time, I have not encountered anyone who smoked tobacco out of a water bong. I'm not saying there aren't people who do-I've just never encountered them. We're making a distinction between hookah pipes and water bongs. Hookahs are from an older tradition-they look different and typically were used for smoking tobacco. The water pipes we seized-and we didn't seize any hookah pipes-are generally not used for legitimate purposes."

Common knowledge aside, says DA spokesman Paul Levikow, authorities knew the intended use of the items because they knew it.

"Our undercover agents went into the shops making it clear what they wanted to use the bongs for," he says, adding that the agents visited all seven of the shops prior to the raids. "The clerks knew what the buyer was buying the bongs for."

Regardless of the intended use of the paraphernalia, Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project in San Francisco, says the real issue is whether the raids were a good use of law-enforcement time and resources.

"You're dealing with a jurisdiction"-San Diego County-"that's intensely hostile to marijuana," Mirken says. "There's not the slightest evidence that paraphernalia laws have any impact on marijuana use. Even if these people have technically broken the law, this is law-enforcement activity that accomplishes precisely nothing."

 

[Blue Dot]

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/16/news/sandiego/z902e5e7a37f7085788257540007cadfb.txt

"With each day that San Diego does not comply with the state's medical marijuana laws, the medical marijuana patients needlessly suffer."

Sounds like the County is getting exactly what it wants. Bastards.

 

[SKUNK420]

this is change people

this is change people

don't you like how 5 or 6 old timers who are out of touch and stuck in the 1950's reefer madness days are going to erase your votes from over 10 years ago. that is if you lived here and voted back in 1996. this is the new face of change. i don't understand how dumb voters are. they vote in a democratic president for change on the federal level but they don't change their local government leaders. they voted to keep the same mayor and DA.

Sounds like the County is getting exactly what it wants. Bastards.

the out going city attorney almost said the same thing in his last taped interview for a local tv news station " they got what they voted for"

 

[707Headband]

do they honor personal medical growers who keep less than 6 plants in any of the counties of san diego ?

 

[irieeyes808]

That just sucks wish the feds would undo their bullshit prohibition

 

[Blue Dot]

do they honor personal medical growers who keep less than 6 plants in any of the counties of san diego ?

nope. I knew of a guy who got locally raided with only 3 plants.

No charges. Said file if you want your equipment back.

 

[T.Baggins]

nope. I knew of a guy who got locally raided with only 3 plants.

No charges. Said file if you want your equipment back.

was he raided or did they just find the plants on accident

 

[Blue Dot]

was he raided or did they just find the plants on accident

raided. This was in the city of sd.

 

[Bender]

was he raided or did they just find the plants on accident

LEO kicked the wrong door down looking for a rapist. Luckily for him he found much bigger and much more dangerous activities going on. The plants had a street value of just under $42,000,000. Baggies for mass schoolyard distribution could be found in a kitchen drawer and $68 cash was found stashed in the bedroom. An antique combat-babykilling over/under shotgun was found along with a high power rifle capable of killing innocent people at over 1000 yards away. Next to the rifles were pictures of the drug lord and partners wearing their signature gang colors: Mossy Oak. Once discovered the officer attempted to photograph the scene but accidentally drew his pistol out of his bag instead of the camera and shot the plants.

 

[T.Baggins]

let me get this straight....they can kick your door in, ransack your house, make the neighbors think your some criminal drug dealer creep...... not file any charges and tell you that you can come get your lights back? that's just so crazy! wtf sdpd? was he stealing power or did someone dime him out or what? just curious...

 

[Blue Dot]

they had a warrant so no accident

and yes, this is what happens is san diego

We are thru the looking glass Alice