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Voters 'Didn't Understand Issues' Of Marijuana Proposition, S.J. Justice Says
STOCKTON -- A San Joaquin Superior Court judge Friday criticized voters for legalizing medical marijuana and then ordered a Stockton quadriplegic to again stand trial for cultivating and intending to sell pot.
"The voters unfortunately didn't understand the issues at all," said Judge Terrence Van Oss, while questioning a doctor who had permitted Aaron Paradiso to buy marijuana from a Bay Area dispensary.
Van Oss later declined to elaborate on his statement. But it reinforced medical-marijuana pro-ponents' concerns that Proposition 215 -- a law approved by voters eight years ago -- is not seen by San Joaquin County law enforcers as legitimate.
"It's never a good sign when a judge questions the voters," said Bill Pearce of the Valley Patient Alliance, a group that advocates for people who use marijuana medicinally.
Pearce was in court Friday supporting Paradiso, 26, whom he calls "a poster boy for this law."
Paradiso was injured in a 1998 traffic accident and now is paralyzed from the neck down. As a result of his quadriplegia, he suffers involuntary muscle spasms. His body went into convulsions several times during the court hearing Friday morning, at first alarming Van Oss.
For more than three years, Paradiso has been smoking marijuana, eating it, and incorporating it into his diet by mixing its oils with butter. It helps him sleep, quells the pain of the spasms and has allowed him to reduce his intake of harsh prescribed medications, he says.
"I'm not hurting nobody," Paradiso said earlier this week. "It's a political issue that I got caught up in.
"If I were in the Bay Area, this wouldn't even be an issue."
The Sheriff's Office and Deputy District Attorney Phillip Urie don't believe that Paradiso was growing marijuana solely for personal use. They say the 52 plants found at his home in August 2003, together with already cultivated, dried marijuana found there, totaled more than 100 pounds -- an amount that would have taken Paradiso 5 1 2 years to ingest.
Paradiso said the marijuana was to be divvied up between four patients authorized to use it. But no evidence of that was presented to Van Oss on Friday.
Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Fontes said during the preliminary hearing Friday that detectives believe Paradiso planned to give or sell his excess marijuana to a collective in the Bay Area that legally dispenses the drug to patients.
During the hearing, Urie presented no evidence that Paradiso had sold marijuana -- no large amounts of cash, accounts of sales or pagers that are typically found in drug busts.
Paradiso's mother, Debra Paradiso, 50, is charged with the same crimes as her son.
M. Gerald Schwartzbach, Aaron Paradiso's attorney, who on Friday was also representing his mother, said there is no reason for Debra Paradiso to have been charged.
"If she's guilty of anything, she's guilty of being a mother," he said.
Schwartzbach, who also is representing actor Robert Blake in Los Angeles, asked Van Oss to dismiss the charges against the Paradiso.
"Regardless of your view of marijuana, we have a ... person here who has been sentenced to a life of not being able to move a muscle below his neck," Schwartzbach said. "It must be a living hell.
"And he gets some relief ( from the marijuana )."
Schwartzbach also called Dr. Theodore Fong to the stand. Fong, a pulmonary and critical-care specialist, treats Paradiso for his quadriplegia and has written notes allowing Paradiso to get medical marijuana.
Though he described himself as "on the fence" on the plant's benefits and as "having some ambivalence to" Paradiso's using it, he wrote a note in 2001 saying it was "OK" if Paradiso did so and another in 2003 saying he would continue to treat Paradiso if he should choose to use marijuana for his spasms.
Van Oss asked Fong about things such as the difference between smoking marijuana and smoking cigarettes. It was during the questioning that Van Oss made his comment about voters' knowledge of "the issues" -- apparently referring to Proposition 215.
Van Oss ordered the Paradisos to stand trial on the charges.
They were tried once before, but the case ended on a legal technicality.
Pearce, the advocate, estimates there are hundreds of medicinal-marijuana users in San Joaquin County.
He said if the district attorney can successfully prosecute a quadriplegic, it will have a chilling effect on those other patients whose illnesses are not as severe.
"They should be ashamed of what they're doing to Aaron Paradiso," Pearce said.
URL: MapInc
STOCKTON -- A San Joaquin Superior Court judge Friday criticized voters for legalizing medical marijuana and then ordered a Stockton quadriplegic to again stand trial for cultivating and intending to sell pot.
"The voters unfortunately didn't understand the issues at all," said Judge Terrence Van Oss, while questioning a doctor who had permitted Aaron Paradiso to buy marijuana from a Bay Area dispensary.
Van Oss later declined to elaborate on his statement. But it reinforced medical-marijuana pro-ponents' concerns that Proposition 215 -- a law approved by voters eight years ago -- is not seen by San Joaquin County law enforcers as legitimate.
"It's never a good sign when a judge questions the voters," said Bill Pearce of the Valley Patient Alliance, a group that advocates for people who use marijuana medicinally.
Pearce was in court Friday supporting Paradiso, 26, whom he calls "a poster boy for this law."
Paradiso was injured in a 1998 traffic accident and now is paralyzed from the neck down. As a result of his quadriplegia, he suffers involuntary muscle spasms. His body went into convulsions several times during the court hearing Friday morning, at first alarming Van Oss.
For more than three years, Paradiso has been smoking marijuana, eating it, and incorporating it into his diet by mixing its oils with butter. It helps him sleep, quells the pain of the spasms and has allowed him to reduce his intake of harsh prescribed medications, he says.
"I'm not hurting nobody," Paradiso said earlier this week. "It's a political issue that I got caught up in.
"If I were in the Bay Area, this wouldn't even be an issue."
The Sheriff's Office and Deputy District Attorney Phillip Urie don't believe that Paradiso was growing marijuana solely for personal use. They say the 52 plants found at his home in August 2003, together with already cultivated, dried marijuana found there, totaled more than 100 pounds -- an amount that would have taken Paradiso 5 1 2 years to ingest.
Paradiso said the marijuana was to be divvied up between four patients authorized to use it. But no evidence of that was presented to Van Oss on Friday.
Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Fontes said during the preliminary hearing Friday that detectives believe Paradiso planned to give or sell his excess marijuana to a collective in the Bay Area that legally dispenses the drug to patients.
During the hearing, Urie presented no evidence that Paradiso had sold marijuana -- no large amounts of cash, accounts of sales or pagers that are typically found in drug busts.
Paradiso's mother, Debra Paradiso, 50, is charged with the same crimes as her son.
M. Gerald Schwartzbach, Aaron Paradiso's attorney, who on Friday was also representing his mother, said there is no reason for Debra Paradiso to have been charged.
"If she's guilty of anything, she's guilty of being a mother," he said.
Schwartzbach, who also is representing actor Robert Blake in Los Angeles, asked Van Oss to dismiss the charges against the Paradiso.
"Regardless of your view of marijuana, we have a ... person here who has been sentenced to a life of not being able to move a muscle below his neck," Schwartzbach said. "It must be a living hell.
"And he gets some relief ( from the marijuana )."
Schwartzbach also called Dr. Theodore Fong to the stand. Fong, a pulmonary and critical-care specialist, treats Paradiso for his quadriplegia and has written notes allowing Paradiso to get medical marijuana.
Though he described himself as "on the fence" on the plant's benefits and as "having some ambivalence to" Paradiso's using it, he wrote a note in 2001 saying it was "OK" if Paradiso did so and another in 2003 saying he would continue to treat Paradiso if he should choose to use marijuana for his spasms.
Van Oss asked Fong about things such as the difference between smoking marijuana and smoking cigarettes. It was during the questioning that Van Oss made his comment about voters' knowledge of "the issues" -- apparently referring to Proposition 215.
Van Oss ordered the Paradisos to stand trial on the charges.
They were tried once before, but the case ended on a legal technicality.
Pearce, the advocate, estimates there are hundreds of medicinal-marijuana users in San Joaquin County.
He said if the district attorney can successfully prosecute a quadriplegic, it will have a chilling effect on those other patients whose illnesses are not as severe.
"They should be ashamed of what they're doing to Aaron Paradiso," Pearce said.
URL: MapInc
