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Associated Press
December 16, 2003
Federal Appeals Court OKs Medical Marijuana in Some Cases
By David Kravets, The Associated Press
San Francisco -- A federal appeals court ruled today that a law outlawing
marijuana may not apply to sick people with a doctor's recommendation
in states that have approved medical marijuana laws.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling 2-1 in a rare late-afternoon
filing, said prosecuting these medical marijuana users under a 1970
federal law is unconstitutional if the marijuana isn't sold, transported
across state lines or used for non-medicinal purposes.
``The intrastate, noncommercial cultivation, possession and use of
marijuana for personal medical purposes on the advice of a physician
is, in fact, different in kind from drug trafficking,'' Judge Harry
Pregerson wrote for the majority.
The court added that ``this limited use is clearly distinct from
the broader illicit drug market, as well as any broader commercial
market for medical marijuana, insofar as the medical marijuana at
issue in this case is not intended for, nor does it enter, the stream
of commerce.''
The decision was a blow to the Justice Department, which argued that
medical marijuana laws in nine states were trumped by the Controlled
Substances Act, which outlawed marijuana, heroin and a host of other
drugs nationwide.
The case concerned two seriously ill California women who sued Attorney
General John Ashcroft. They asked for a court order letting them smoke,
grow or obtain marijuana without fear of federal prosecution.
The case underscores the conflict between federal law and California's
1996 medical marijuana law, which allows people to grow, smoke or
obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's recommendation.
A U.S. District judge tossed the case in March, saying the Controlled
Substances Act barred him from blocking any potential enforcement
action against medical marijuana patients Angel Raich and Diane Monson.
Today's ruling sends the case back to the district judge.
Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington
state have laws similar to California, which has been the focus of
federal drug interdiction efforts. Agents have raided and shut down
several medical marijuana growing clubs.
The appeals court, the nation's largest, does not have jurisdiction
over Colorado and Maine.
The case is Raich v. Ashcroft, 03-15481.
David Kravets has been covering state and federal courts for a decade.
Copyright: 2003 Associated Press
Arizona legislators fail to protect medical marijuana patients
R.J. Bee, MPP legislative analyst; April 23, 2003
Arizona legislators could have acted to protect medical marijuana
patients this session. They chose not to. With the deadline to introduce
bills in the legislature long past, Arizona's medical marijuana patients
will continue to face criminal penalties for using their medicine.
Although Arizona citizens passed a medical marijuana initiative
in 1996, Proposition 200 was stymied because of a discrepancy with federal
law. This initiative said that doctors could "prescribe" marijuana. But doctors
are prohibited from "prescribing" marijuana because federal law does not recognize
its medical value. This made Proposition 200 ineffective. Effective medical
marijuana laws protect only patients who have doctors' "recommendations."
In spite of continual federal opposition to states' preferences
on medical marijuana, popular support for this issue has increased: According
to the latest Time/CNN poll, 80 percent of Americans support
medical marijuana.
The citizens of Arizona have expressed their compassion for the
seriously ill medical marijuana patients of the state. In the face of this
public support, legislators have refused to act. The only victims are the
state's medical marijuana patients.
We must protect these individuals from criminal penalties. Please
urge your legislators to introduce a medical marijuana bill next session:
Only you can convince them that this issue is vitally important to Arizona
residents.
Members of the Arizona Legislature must be convinced to protect
the state's seriously ill patients who need marijuana as their medicine.
Bush To Sign Crime Bill Widening Drug Law
N.O. rave prosecution
helped spur provision
Tuesday April 29, 2003
By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- President Bush is expected to sign into law this week a far-reaching
crime bill that includes a controversial provision making it easier for federal
prosecutors to hold music promoters and property owners criminally responsible
when they knowingly allow their venues to be used for illegal drug use.
A White House spokesman said the measure, part of legislation expanding
the Amber Alert system aimed at catching child abductors, will be signed
Wednesday. The bill passed the Senate and House earlier this month with support
from the entire Louisiana congressional delegation.
The drug provision was added by Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., whose spokesman
said he was motivated in part by the prosecution two years ago in New Orleans
of local promoters of all-night dance parties known as raves. Then-U.S.
Attorney Eddie Jordan alleged that the raves included rampant drug use.
The prosecution resulted in a plea bargain, but some civil liberties groups
questioned whether Jordan, now New Orleans district attorney, had gone too
far in using a 1986 law targeting crack houses to stop the flow of drugs,
particularly Ecstasy, at the all-night dance parties. The Biden spokesman
said the senator's bill leaves no doubt about congressional intent.
"The reason I introduced this bill was not to ban dancing, kill 'the rave
scene' or silence electronic music -- all things of which I have been accused,"
Biden said in a floor speech. "In no way is the bill aimed at stifling any
type of music or expression; it is only trying to deter illicit drug use and
protect kids."
But Joe Cook, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union
of Louisiana, said that discouraging free expression is exactly what will
happen when the Biden provision becomes law.
"What this bill that is about to become law does is threaten free speech,"
Cook said. "I expect that it will make some owners afraid to rent or lease
spaces for events that they perceive rightly or wrongly will attract drug
use."
Cook said law enforcement ought to go after those who sell or use dangerous
drugs, not those who host an event where some drug use occurs.
Under the Biden proposal, the 1986 crack house law will be expanded to
include properties used or rented for one-time events, such as concerts or
dances. It will allow prosecutors to seek prison terms and civil fines of
up to $250,000 for property owners and event promoters who sponsored events
in which drug use was encouraged.
"Enacting this legislation will help prosecute unscrupulous promoters who
seek to profit from exploiting and endangering young lives," Biden said when
he introduced the legislation earlier this year. "This law is not aimed at
one type of event or drug. However, one problem we are currently facing nationwide
involves so-called 'club drugs' and raves."
Biden said the Partnership for a Drug Free America found that teenagers
who attend raves are seven times more likely to have tried Ecstasy than those
who haven't.
"While we know that not all Ecstasy use takes place at raves and that not
all ravers use Ecstasy or other club drugs, the fact is that drug use is widespread
at many raves," Biden said.
Opponents of the legislation draw some satisfaction that Biden amended
his original legislation to take out the specific reference to raves. Targeting
one form of entertainment, they said, amounted to discrimination against
electronic music and dance events. The Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates
alternatives to the war on drugs such as prevention programs and making marijuana
legal for medical purposes, nevertheless asked Attorney General John Ashcroft
to give the new law low priority.
It said Biden sneaked the measure into the child-crime legislation without
benefit of committee hearings and called on Ashcroft to concentrate on other
duties, such as terrorism. "Targeting, arresting and prosecuting innocent
business owners will not solve our national drug problems," its letter to
Ashcroft said.
A Justice Department official, who asked not to be identified, said Ashcroft
strongly backs giving prosecutors more tools to reduce dangerous drug use
by teens.
Pot activist files suit for share of trust set up by ex-employer
Carol Sowers
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 21, 2003 12:00 AM
A marijuana activist who drew national attention with his recent drug
conviction in San Francisco is fighting a different legal battle in Maricopa
County Superior Court.
This time money is at the center of a fight between Ed Rosenthal and
administrators of a trust set up by Thomas Forcade, a Phoenix native and
1970s counterculture icon.
Forcade, whose real name was Gary Goodson, founded the still-published
High Times magazine in 1974, vowing it would provide "the most
wide-ranging dope coverage anywhere."
Four years later, the brooding Forcade killed himself at age 33, leaving
behind the trust.
No one is saying how much money is in the trust. Family members and
other associates hold most of the shares, and the National Organization
for Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, is a beneficiary.
Rosenthal wants a judge to force trust officials to disclose the trust's
value, but administrators refuse.
Rosenthal, 58, of Oakland, whose popular "Ask Ed" column on pot cultivation
appeared in High Times for 17 years, says he also should be a beneficiary.
So he and Andy Kowl, 51, a former High Times executive, filed suit
in Superior Court.
Kowl and Rosenthal say they qualify under trust provisions that reward
"loyal employees" with 10 years of service between 1976 and 1999.
"I was at the heart and soul of that magazine at its inception," said
Rosenthal, whose name was listed on the magazine's masthead.
In February, a month after he filed the civil suit, Rosenthal was convicted
in a federal court in San Francisco, for the first time on drug charges.
His lawyers argued that he was deputized by Oakland to grow medicinal marijuana,
but that evidence was not allowed in court. He is awaiting sentence.
Phoenix lawyer John Goodson, who is Forcade's cousin, drafted the trust.
He said in an interview that Rosenthal was little more than a magazine freelancer,
trading his columns for space to advertise his books on growing pot.
Rosenthal says he agreed to the arrangement, because "they were always
pleading poverty with me. I never dreamed they would use it against me."
Goodson said his cousin "trusted me to decide who was loyal and who
was not. And in my opinion they were not."
He said Rosenthal was always "arguing with the staff" and was "rejected
by my cousin."
Goodson won't reveal the numbers without a fight.
"Rosenthal and Kowl aren't trustees" Goodson said, "and they don't have
a right to that information." |
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Feds seize Phoenix factory in drug paraphernalia sweep
Arizona Republic Feb. 25, 2003
Federal authorities seized a Phoenix glassware factory on
Monday and arrested three Valley residents as part of a nationwide
crackdown on Internet distributors of bongs, crack pipes and
other illegal drug paraphernalia.
In coordinated raids from California to Pennsylvania, agents
confiscated "thousands and thousands of tons" of paraphernalia
from companies boasting up to $50 million in annual sales, said
Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh, whose office
is leading the "Operation Pipe Dreams" investigation along with
the Drug Enforcement Administration.
"No one would possibly use these items for smoking tobacco,"
Buchanan said at a Justice Department news conference.
In Phoenix, DEA agents hit Stone Artworx at 3702 W Clarendon
Ave., after obtaining indictments against Mary Louise Stone, 58,
president and chief executive; David V Stone, 38, secretary; and
Eric M. Rodgers, 32, whose title could not be ascertained.
None of the defendants could be reached for comment.
Tony Coulson, assistant special agent in charge for the DEA
in Arizona, said Stone Artworx manufactures glassware, mostly
drug paraphernalia, out of a 100,000square-foot building for
nationwide sales. He said such companies have distributed products
with relative impunity through head shops that sell drug paraphernalia
and on the Internet by claiming the items are flower holders,
artworks or designed for other legal uses. "We're making a statement
here that you can't hide behind that anymore," Coulson added.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the sale of drug paraphernalia
has exploded on the Internet, making it easier for teenagers
to buy it. The items often are disguised and marketed under code
names and symbols.
"Quite simply, the illegal drug paraphernalia industry has
invaded the homes of families across the country without their
knowledge," Ashcroft said. Organizations advocating the legalization
of marijuana accused Ashcroft of grandstanding.
"At a time when the rest of the country is worried about terrorism,
this attorney general is going after people who sell pipes,"
said Keith'Stroup, founder of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana laws. "Surely he has something better to
do with his time."
Federal law makes it a crime to sell products mainly
intended for the use of illegal drugs, including bongs, marijuana
pipes, roach clips, miniature spoons and scales. Those charged
face up to three years in prison, fines of $250,000 and forfeiture
of warehouses, machinery and other property.
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