On Wednesday December 16, 2009 Elizabeth McKenna a former combat EMT and legal California medical marijuana patient appeared in US District Court in downtown Los Angeles to answer federal charges of misdemeanor possession of marijuana on federal property.
Her attorney, Beverly Hills based William Kroger (http://www.420attorney.com) used The California Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (Prop 215), Ms. McKenna's extensive medical records and the Federal Memorandum on How To Treat Medical Marijuana Cases to convince the court to dismiss the charges.
Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Patient Gets Federal Marijuana Possession Charge Dismissed
by Brett Stone
MMJ News From Brett
December 17, 2009
On Wednesday December 16, 2009 Elizabeth McKenna a former combat EMT and legal California medical marijuana patient appeared in US District Court in downtown Los Angeles to answer federal charges of misdemeanor possession of marijuana on federal property.
Ms. McKenna went to the Veterans hospital in Westwood, California in October of 2009 seeking medical treatment. Upon her admission she was found to be in possession of marijuana and a federal police officer cited her for misdemeanor possession of marijuana on federal property.
Her attorney, Beverly Hills based William Kroger (http://www.420attorney.com) used The California Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (Prop 215), Ms. McKenna's extensive medical records and the recent Federal Memorandum on How To Treat Medical Marijuana Cases to convince the court to dismiss the charges.
The Assistant US Attorney argued against the dismissal but in the end logic and sanity prevailed and the charges were dismissed. Watching it one can only say it was an education for the AUSA who left the courtroom spinning and disappointed.
Outside the courthouse Mr. Kroger said, "This is a big victory. It shows that medical marijuana patients in California have rights, even in a federal jurisdiction."
The funny thing is the memorandum was supposed to signal to the feds to not even try and prosecute a case but in this instance they prosecuted and the memorandum was used as a defense (which was not really it's intended meaning). It was supposed to stop the prosecution from occuring in the first place.
I guess it was just the timing of when she was arrested and prosecuted and when the memo was realeased that made this happen the way it did.
