Californians who have a doctor's
approval to smoke marijuana are protected from conviction for violating
state drug laws, the stateSupreme Court ruled Thursday.
The unanimous decision -- the first
time the court has ruled on the state's controversial medicinal marijuana
initiative -- could reduce the number of prosecutions for growing and possessing
the drug. It also bolsters the law by making it easier to defend against
prosecution under the measure approved by voters in 1996.
``The possession and cultivation
of marijuana is no more criminal -- so long as its conditions are satisfied
-- than the possession and acquisition of any prescription drug with a
physician's prescription,'' Chief Justice Ronald M. George wrote for the
court.
Although the ballot measure does
not shield patients or primary caregivers from arrest or prosecution, the
court said it can be used as a defense to dismiss charges before a trial.
Gerald Uelmen, the Santa Clara University
law professor who argued the case, said the court's decision also has symbolic
value because it treats medicinal marijuana like any prescribed drug.
``For the first time the court is
equating the medical marijuana patient with the regular medical patient
who gets a prescription,'' he said. As a result, Uelmen said he was hopeful
that the ruling would discourage police from arresting people who grow
marijuana and have a doctor's note recommending its use.
With the passage of Proposition
215, California voters became the first in the nation to approve a measure
that allowed patients to smoke marijuana to ease their symptoms with the
approval of a doctor. Since 1996, eight other states have passed similar
measures.
Since the proposition was approved,
its implementation has been hampered by court cases pitting the federal
government against state officials. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued
a ruling that made it impossible for third parties to provide medicinal
marijuana to seriously ill patients without running afoul of federal drug
laws. As a result, several Bay Area medicinal pot clubs have shut.
Thursday's ruling grew out of a
Tuolumne County case of a blind diabetic who cultivated pot to ease his
nausea and maintain his weight. Myron Mower was arrested after sheriff's
deputies discovered marijuana plants at his home.
``Today was a good day,'' said a
jubilant Mower, 40. ``This protects people from being arrested and having
to worry about going to trial.''
Dennis Peron, Proposition 215's
sponsor, said he wished the court would have issued a stronger decision,
but was nevertheless happy with the outcome.
Mower was arrested in 1997 when
sheriff's deputies found his 31 plants. The Tuolumne County department
allows no more than three plants for medicinal use. Counties set their
own limits on the number of plants permitted.
Uelmen said he was disappointed
that the court did not address the varying standards in its ruling.
Thursday's ruling, which overturns
an appeals court decision, sends Mower's case back to Tuolumne Superior
Court for a trial on whether those 31 plants were for medical use. But
Uelmen said he expects prosecutors to drop the case.
The ruling makes it easier for Mower
and other defendants to prevail at such trials.
The court decided that, to prove
their cases, defendants only need to raise a reasonable doubt about a prosecutor's
charges that their marijuana was not for medical use. At Mower's trial,
however, jurors had been instructed that he had to prove this case by a
preponderance of the evidence, a much higher standard.
Even the state attorney general's
office, which argued the case on behalf of Tuolumne County, praised the
court's decision.
``The California Supreme Court's
decision today provides the state with a welcome and needed interpretation
of important aspects of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996,'' said Attorney
General Bill Lockyer, using the measure's legal title. ``I believe the
court's decision strikes an appropriate balance in helping ensure that
truly needy patients whose doctors have recommended medical marijuana to
alleviate pain and suffering related to serious illnesses will have access
to the medicine under California law.'’
© 2001 bayarea and wire service
sources. All Rights Reserved.
