cannabisnews.com: California Medical Marijuana Program Halted





California Medical Marijuana Program Halted
Posted by CN Staff on July 13, 2005 at 08:45:04 PT
By Brendan Coyne 
Source: NewStandard
California -- Citing a recent Supreme Court ruling that federal laws barring the use, distribution or possession of marijuana trump state statutes allowing the medicinal use of the drug, the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) halted a medical marijuana ID pilot program Friday. The action comes a month after a five-to-four Supreme Court ruling found that federal interstate commerce laws can be used to prosecute medical marijuana users even if medical use has been legalized by the state, no monetary exchange takes place, and the plant never crosses state lines.
California's health director, Sandra Shewry, asked the state Attorney General’s office to review the state’s medicinal marijuana law in light of the decision before the Department will issue any new ID cards, the Associated Press reported Friday. According to the CDHS, cards have been issued to 123 people since the pilot program started in May. In a statement, the Department noted it was concerned that by issuing the cards, which were meant to protect patients using marijuana at the behest of their doctors from arrest, the state was in violation of federal law and could put Californians at risk of prosecution."I am concerned about unintended potential consequences of issuing medical marijuana ID cards that could affect medical marijuana users, their families and staff of the California Department of Health Services," Shewry said in the statement.Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the advocacy group Drug Policy Alliance issued a statement threatening to sue the state to reinstate the program. A letter the two organizations sent to the governor and health director states that the CDHS does not have the power to suspend state law. "It is shameful that a court may have to order the state to reopen the doors to its medical marijuana program, but this will be the inevitable result unless the governor backs down from this unfounded assault on legitimate medical marijuana patients," the Alliance’s legal affairs director, Daniel Abrahamson, said in the statement.In fact, California’s attorney general already sent a letter to all state law enforcement agencies in the wake of the June 6 Supreme Court ruling, stating that the ruling did not affect the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, the popularly-enacted California law that allows patients to use marijuana medicinally at a doctor’s discretion.The new ID program was part of medical marijuana legislation signed into law by former Governor Gray Davis in October 2003. It arose out of the recommendations of a 1999 state task force commissioned by Attorney General Bill Lockyer to help implement the Compassionate Use Act.Implementing the photo ID program was intended to aid law enforcement officials and medical professionals in separating medical marijuana users from those who are breaking the law by using or possessing the herb without a doctor’s permission, according to a statement posted to the Program’s website.Complete Title: California Medical Marijuana Program Halted, Suit ThreatenedSource: NewStandard (NY)Author: Brendan Coyne Published: July 13, 2005Copyright: 2005 The NewStandardWebsite: http://newstandardnews.net/Contact: ed-letters newstandardnews.net Related Articles & Web Sites:ACLUhttp://www.aclu.org/Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/ACLU and Drug Policy Alliance Threaten To Sue http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20948.shtmlCalifornia Stops Issuing Drug ID Cardshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20939.shtml
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Comment #10 posted by Rev Jonathan Adler on July 14, 2005 at 23:36:48 PT:
State Programs are weak!
Aloha and Remember the Alamo! A few good men and women can hold out against many hypocritical liars and assasins.!
State medical marijuana programs are weak because they defer to federal "illegal" law. The state's right to establish health, safety and public welfare standards is paramount to federal jurisdiction, no matter what they say! I am of the opinion that a purely medical defense is weak and full of problems until our federal policies come into a consistency with our state laws. If they cared about us at all! Our health and safety doesn't really matter to them.
As I have harped again and again; the religious exemption (defense) is one up on federal prohibition and works when legitmately and sincerely applied. Call me at 808-968-0679 if you are ready to truely defend yourself from the evil axis of marijuana prohibition, once and for all! I am glad the Native American Church uses peyote legally. I am glader that the rastafarian people made their religious use accepted. I am happy ayhoazca is now a protected religious use. And I am ecstatic the The Religion of Jesus Church/ East Hawaii Branch is in possesion of an agreement with our circuit courts that we are also protected and allowed to exercise our religion freely, according to RFRA 1993 and Guam vs. Guererro (2000). Remember the Alamo because it matters when you are right and righteous. NEVER GIVE IN !!
Our P.O. Box for donations for membership is: Box 742 Hilo, Hi. 96721 Sincerely; Rev. Jonathan Adler ALOHA TO ALL!
Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institute
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Comment #9 posted by jose melendez on July 14, 2005 at 04:40:27 PT
Flunkie fails test. Test deleted, flunkie promoted
"Rove may be forced to resign from the Bush administration and even if he is prosecuted the next president will pardon him just like Dubya’s daddy pardoned all those Iran-Contra criminals. Meanwhile, if you’re a black male in the Queens neighborhoods of Cambria Heights and Laurelton, you get racially profiled, dragneted, arrested, and interrogated because a cop was shot (or stabbed) in the leg while attempting to arrest somebody for smoking marijuana."http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m13308&l=i&size=1&hd=0
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Comment #8 posted by jose melendez on July 13, 2005 at 16:23:08 PT
they're flunking the test.
Hear, hear. I have a Chicago Sergeant buddy, the guy gets so freaking hammered he can't see straight and still does not see that by busting pot heads he is chasing jaywalkers instead of serial killers.Of course, he swears he's never known any of his co-workers to break the law, but speeds himself, so I don't know why I even listen to the guy.I guess it's like the car salesman or stock broker that eats Tums for lunch. There's a message for kids, if there ever was one. Do what you love.
 The money will come, or is not really what you needed any way, because you will have POWER.
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on July 13, 2005 at 13:52:47 PT
I See What You Mean
Thanks EJ. I understand. 
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Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on July 13, 2005 at 13:07:29 PT
FoM compare the patterns
I remember reading that they let this serial killer out of prison, and put him back in when he smoked a joint and failed his first drug test. That could have saved lives. He cut off some girl's arms. He's a heinous man. Societ is safer with him behind bars.This is why the cops are so hooked on prohibition. Aside from the jobs entitlement program it provides, since marijuana is an anti-traumatic, and most criminals have been traumatized in one way or another, ex-cons are going to want to use pot, and the cops have an easy way to push ex-cons around, for better or worse.I for one don't mind rapists and serial killers being pushed around. So we have to live in fear so that the police have an easy way to push around people whom in many cases society has a right to fear.In Afghanistan they need a way to push people around to get what they want, to stop the Taliban so the country can be at peace, and since everyone has pot in Afghanistan, that gives them a reason to be able to use forceful authority on anyone they want.Marijuana is an anti-traumatic, it is used by both good people who have trauma and by evil people who have trauma. The police don't mind so much ruining the lives of the good people, because the marijuana laws give them an easy way to control the bad ones.It's too hard for them to resist. It's like the Devil has tested them with temptation, and they're flunking the test.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on July 13, 2005 at 09:59:53 PT
Last Night
I saw a little bit of a program on Afghanistan. Soldiers were going from town to town looking for insurgents  
 and in this village in their garden was a marijuana plant. They asked who is responsible for the marijuana plant and the man shook his head and said he didn't know. Even in a country where a war is being fought they worry about one about 4 foot plant. It's insanity to me that a marijuana plant is even worth asking anyone about. 
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Comment #4 posted by PainWithNoInsurance on July 13, 2005 at 09:54:39 PT
War Against the Have and Have Not?
The poor can't afford medical treatment and the rich keep them from seeking cheaper alternatives. The states are going bankrupt while the rich feds runs their every issue. Big healthy muscle men with mighty guns muscle sick people for releiving their suffering. Rich feds seek to stop poor patients from getting cheaper Canadian medication. I could think of examples of the war between the have and have not.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on July 13, 2005 at 09:48:25 PT
Thank Goodness
I finally got R.E.M.'s song and video from Live 8 downloaded. That's how I feel today like this song Everybody Hurts. We have been fighting so long for medical marijuana and the rights of people to use this ancient herbal medicine and it shouldn't even be an issue and it breaks my heart. 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 13, 2005 at 09:38:22 PT
If I Was a Lawmaker
I would say yes or no and leave no loopholes for anyone. It's like Rove saying he didn't say her name so that's ok. The way lawyers play on words drives me crazy and makes me turn off all the more to politics and politicians. 
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Comment #1 posted by goneposthole on July 13, 2005 at 09:34:24 PT
for gosh sakes
Flip flop, it never stops."Prohibition extended longer in the United States than in Canada, and this led to some "reluctant immigrants". In the seniors' focus groups, one of the seniors reminisced that occasionally, an American physician would be charged with bootlegging. To save face and his family name, he would hop over the border, and begin practising in Canada.The Prohibition legislation in Canada varied from province to province. But, in general, legal drinking establishments were closed. The public sale of alcohol was forbidden, as was possession and public consumption of alcohol. Alcohol consumption was permitted in private dwellings. As a result, drinking had to occur behind closed doors, and often in secret.Alcohol could be sold to others outside the province. It could also be purchased from government dispensaries for industrial, scientific, mechanical, artistic, sacramental and medicinal uses. Drinking alcohol did not stop during Prohibition. It just went underground. One way to legally drink was to be "ill". Doctors could give prescriptions to be filled at drugstores:
 	"Scandalous abuse of this system resulted, with veritable epidemics and long line ups occurring during the Christmas holiday season". (3) 	 For example, by the spring of 1920, 315,000 'prescriptions' for 'medicinal purposes" had been written by doctors in Ontario. They blamed the large volume on the influenza epidemic.(4) In 1923-24, there were 810,000 prescriptions issued in the province. (5)Today, some seniors still drink for "medicinal purposes" and self-medicate for pain, sleeping difficulties, and other chronic problems using alcohol."http://www.agingincanada.ca/Seniors%20Alcohol/1a.htm
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