On June 23rd, the Santa Cruz City Council passed a 45-day moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries in the city limits. Councilmembers said they needed the moratorium because they claimed there was a flood of daily inquiries to the city's Planning Department about opening medical marijuana centers. The are two pending applications for dispensaries on the Westside of Santa Cruz.

There are two existing dispensaries currently operating in the Harvey West area of Santa Cruz. However, local medical marijuana patient Craig Canada reports that he buys his medication from dispensaries in San Francisco where the prices are more competitive. Proponents of medical marijuana hope that additional dispensaries in Santa Cruz will result in more affordable prices locally.

There were lots of public comments at the June 23rd meeting, but there was not any council discussion after the public input session. The real moratorium on the two pending applications is at least 70 days since the Zoning Commission doesn't meet in August. And then one staff person can unilaterally extend the moratorium for nine months if the staff person finds they didn't "have enough time". Read more

The Santa Cruz City Council Measure K Oversight Committee held their most recent meeting on June 15th. As directed in Santa Cruz Municipal Code Section 9.84.060, the Committee is charged with overseeing the implementation of SCMC Chapter 9.84 which makes "Adult Marijuana Criminal Offenses" the "Lowest Law Enforcement Priority."

Measure K was passed by 64% of the voters in 2006. Since then it has been depleted by City Council hostility, staff negligence, city attorney and Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) intervention, and the failure of activists to challenge the situation.

HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom) published a video and notes from the June 15th meeting held in City Council Chambers. HUFF notes the following points of particular concern:

1) The Measure K Oversight Committee is being denied substantive and detailed police documentation relating to citations/arrests involving marijuana.
2) The Committee is limited to two meetings per calendar year.
3) An agenda item slated for discussion at the December 2009 Measure K meeting proposes that even fewer meetings be scheduled in the future.
4) Minutes of the meeting are not made available to Committee members until roughly a week before the next meeting.
5) There was no SCPD liaison present.

Video and notes from the June 15, 2009 meeting

See also: Rump Measure K Committee Excludes Public Comment, Loses Audio Tape || Measure K Committee Old-Timer To Air Concerns at Committee Meeting || Gutted and Depleted Measure K Commission

City of Santa Cruz documents: 12/15/08 || 2/21/07 || 7/25/06

Each year on April 20th, at 4:20pm, people celebrate and smoke cannabis together. One of the biggest gathering spots in California, perhaps the biggest, is Porter Meadow at UC Santa Cruz. It's a large event for the whole community - a place where thousands of people can have a picnic, play with musical instruments, frisbees, kites and just have fun. It's in a safe and relatively secluded location and problems are rare.

In past years, the usual practice has been for a police officer and an administrator to come by towards 5:30 and urge people to move on. By that time, most folks have been there for a few hours and are pretty much ready to go, so the event gradually fizzles out. But in recent years, something changed.

In an April 7th, 2009 message to students, UCSC's Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs writes that Four Twenty "diminishes UCSC’s reputation and draws negative attention to the campus" and then goes on to list numerous restrictions curtailing the ability for students to associate with their friends and move freely around campus. Students are vowing to defy UCSC's “no-guest” policy, while pointing out that UCSC is an open and public campus.

Four Twenty at UCSC | Photos | Fascism and pacificism at 420 | 420 in Golden Gate Park, SF

During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama, along with other major Democratic candidates, promised to stop the federal government's raids on medical cannabis dispensaries. Medical cannabis-related raids continued, in South Lake Tahoe in January and in Mendocino County in February. Several national cannabis advocacy organizations encouraged supporters of medical cannabis to write to President Obama to ask him to stop the raids. Medical cannabis patients became concerned that Obama's words had merely been an empty campaign promise, or that he could not reign in the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency).

In a February 25th press conference with DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters that ending federal medical marijuana raids "is now American policy." His exact words were, "What the President said during the campaign...is consistent with what we will be doing here in law enforcement. He was my boss in the campaign....He is my boss now. What he said in the campaign is now American policy." Cannabis advocates across the country see this as a major victory. However, no federal laws have been changed; cannabis is still classified as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. Americans for Safe Access is still encouraging cannabis advocates to write to the President to ask him to authorize more advanced scientific research into the herb's benefits and to reschedule cannabis.

Controlled Substances Act | Video of Obama Speaking About Medical Marijuana on the Campaign Trail

Laurel Krause writes: Ongoing medical marijuana busts throughout Mendocino County have been arresting local residents daily. I was one of five busts made and charged with two felonies (cultivation and intent to sell/distribute) on February 20th, even though I had my doctor recommendation and was growing with the guidelines published at the Mendocino County website.

As I looked out my kitchen window I was shocked to see 25 Mendocino County Sheriffs/Deputies coming through my gate very quickly. The lead man, Sheriff Jonathan Martin, showed me a search warrant, handcuffed me and read me my rights. I was cooperative as they searched my home, my grow area on my five acres and seized all grow equipment related to 24 medical marijuana plants in full bloom. They chopped down the plants and hauled them away as I was being grilled and bullied in my home. This number is significant because if you google the Mendocino County Sheriff's webpage on medical marijuana guidelines, it says 25 plants. You are probably aware of the 'fuzziness' of these guidelines.

It gets worse. I was the #4 bust of 5 that day (Friday, Feb 20) and the guys let us know that they had five more for Saturday and five more on Sunday. Not individuals, but actual grows that might arrest multiple people. And most of the growers are women with kids (so now the children are possibly being taken away and bank accounts frozen). Real emotional and economic despair. Read more

Barry Cooper, a former Texas police officer with eight years of specialty in drug interdiction, first made waves when he released the film "Never Get Busted Again," a how-to guide for evading police drug seizures. Austin, Texas-based Cooper's latest project, 'KopBusters,' is not nearly so benign, and will likely generate for the former drug warrior an army of enemies in law enforcement.

His upcoming reality show, 'KopBusters,' a 'To Catch A Predator' style crusade against dirty officers, sparked an immediate response after RAW STORY covered a news brief of their first sting.

Cooper has now released footage from the initial episode of 'KopBusters,' in which the Odessa, TX police department raids a suspected marijuana grow house, only to discover they played right into the filmmaker's hands. As surveillance cameras roll, the police slowly figure out they've been had. Read More and Watch Video

On May 22nd in Los Angeles, the California Court of Appeals ruled that the state limits on medical marijuana possession and cultivation that were established under state law SB 420 are unconstitutional. In the case People v. Patrick Kelly, the court overturned the defendant's conviction for possessing 12 ounces of dried marijuana plants on the grounds that the prosecutor had improperly argued that the defendant was guilty because he possessed more than the 8-ounce limit established in Health & Safety Code Section 11362.77 and did not have a doctor's recommendation that authorized more. That section also says that counties and cities can enact medical marijuana guidelines that allow patients or caregivers to exceed the state limits.

In its 3-0 decision, the court ruled: "The prosecutor's argument was improper... because the CUA [Compassionate Use Act] can only be amended with voters' approval. Voters, however, did not approve the eight-ounce limit and other caps in section 11362.77; hence, section 11362.77 unconstitutionally amends the CUA." The decision could be appealed to the Supreme Court. Prop. 215 advocates such as California NORML have long believed that the SB 420 limits are unconstitutional. Statement from California NORML

Text of Court of Appeals decision in People v. Patrick Kelly | Text of SB 420 | Text of Proposition 215

Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) and a small bi-partisan coalition of Members of Congress introduced H.R. 5842, the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act in April. The legislation will help protect individuals who use or provide medical cannabis in accordance with their state law.

If it is passed, this legislation would, among other things, reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I to Schedule II drug according the Controlled Substances Act and provide clearer protections for qualified patients, their caregivers, and safe-access sites authorized by state or local law. Such bills have been introduced in the past, but had not been passed into law. Americans for Safe Access has a Patient Protection Act page on its website from which people can write to their U.S. Representative to support this piece of legislation.

HR 5842: Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act | ASA's announcement about contacting Congresspeople | Controlled Substances Act

On April 29th, California's Assembly Committee on Public Safety passed A.B. 2743. The bill, authored by Assembly Member Lori Saldaña (D-San Diego) and spearheaded by the Marijuana Policy Project, or MPP, would direct state and local law enforcement officers to not assist in federal raids on medical marijuana patients and providers. The bill will now continue on to the appropriations committee.

During the more than ten years in which patients in California have had legal access to medical cannabis, local and state officials have assisted the federal war on patients and providers in more than three-dozen cases, including by calling in federal agents. Some segments of the law enforcement community have reportedly opposed this bill, but the state's ill and injured patients prevailed when the committee voted to move the bill forward.

The committee heard testimony from MPP's Aaron Smith; a raided dispensary operator; a disabled former corrections officer; and Dr. Mollie Fry and her husband Dale Schafer, who have been sentenced to five years in federal prison for medical marijuana. Several patients and caregivers from the Sacramento area also attended to show their support for the bill.

Marijuana Policy Project's Statement | ASA's AB 2743 Page

Update: An inconclusive vote was held on the Assembly floor on May 19th. Marijuana Policy Project is calling for supporters of the legislation to contact their Assemblypeople to "thank or spank" them and to encourage their votes in favor of the bill when it is next considered by the full body.

A state medical marijuana employment rights bill is working its way through California's state Assembly committees. AB 2279, which would protect the rights of hundreds of thousands of medical marijuana patients in California from employment discrimination, was introduced in February and was approved April 17th by the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on a 6-2 vote. The bill, which heads to the Assembly floor next, would reverse a January California Supreme Court decision in Ross v. RagingWire, which said that an employer may fire someone solely because they use medical marijuana outside the workplace. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) argued the case in court and is now a sponsor of the bill.

The bill leaves intact existing state law prohibiting medical marijuana consumption at the workplace and "protects employers" from liability by carving out an exception for safety-sensitive positions. "The California Supreme Court decision said that an employer may fire someone solely because they use medical marijuana outside the workplace," Mr. Leno said in a previous statement. "AB 2279 is merely an affirmation of the intent of the voters and the legislature that medical marijuana patents need not be unemployed to benefit from their medicine."

On January 24th, the California Supreme Court upheld a ruling that denied qualified patients a remedy from employment discrimination, based either on their status as a patient or a positive test for marijuana. The plaintiff from the case, Gary Ross, is a 46-year old disabled veteran who was a systems engineer living Carmichael when he was fired in 2001 from his job at RagingWire Telecommunications-- for testing positive for marijuana. "It's important that we not allow employment discrimination in California," Ross said. "If the court is going to ignore the need for protection, then it's up to the legislature to ensure that productive workers like me are free from discrimination."

Text of AB2279 | ASA page on AB2279, including Fact Sheet and Letters of Support | Legal briefs and rulings in the Ross v. RagingWire case | Indybay's Past Coverage: CA Supreme Court Upholds Right of Employers to Fire Medical Marijuana Users

Thousands of students from around the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas participated in a "Four Twenty" celebration in Porter Meadow at UC Santa Cruz on April 20th, 2008. Four Twenty (420) is a time of day when people, often a group of friends, smoke cannabis together or eat foods cooked with it. For that reason, April 20th has evolved into a counterculture holiday where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis. Porter Meadow at UCSC has traditionally been the largest 420 gathering place around, and this year was said to be even larger than 2007. Despite the severe measures initiated by the UCSC administration to curtail the unorganized convergence, folks showed they were determined to experience Four Twenty as one large group of people in the Porter Meadow. Read More and View Photos

see also: Thousands Celebrate 420 at Porter Meadow | UCSC Reefer Madness! Campus lockdown! | 2007: A Portrait: 420 at UC Santa Cruz

On Wednesday, March 19th, the California Supreme Court decided not to review last year’s landmark return of property decision in Garden Grove v. Superior Court. By affirming the appellate court’s decision, the Supreme Court has made protection against seizure of medical marijuana by law enforcement legally binding throughout the state of California.

In November of 2007, the California Court of Appeal ruled that state law enforcement could not use federal law as an excuse for not upholding California’s medical cannabis laws – therefore police must return medicine wrongfully seized from legal patients. ASA filed the successful appeal on behalf of Garden Grove patient Felix Kha in hopes of stemming the tide of hundreds of wrongful confiscations of medicine all over California. Kha had sought the return of his 8 grams of medical marijuana that was seized by police in June of 2005. In a ruling that rejects law enforcement's claim that federal law preempts the state's medical marijuana law, the court asserted "we do not believe the federal drug laws supersede or preempt Kha's right to the return of his property." The court further stated that, "it is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws..."

As a result of hundreds of cases of wrongful medical marijuana confiscation, and careful legal planning and research over the course of two years, ASA’s legal team felt that it built a strong defense for the rights of Felix Kha and others like him. ASA wants to make sure that the more than 250,000 legal patients and thousands of attorneys and public defenders are sufficiently educated about patients’ rights and protection from medicine confiscation to which patients are now entitled. ASA now hopes to educate police officers, prosecutors, and judges, and to use the media to end patient harassment and to ensure that police no longer claim that marijuana is illegal.

ASA's page about the Garden Grove case || Past coverage on Indybay: 11/2007: Appellate Court Strongly Vindicates Patients Right to Medical Marijuana Seized by Police | 8/2007: State Appellate Court to Hear Demand for Return of Patients' Medicine