T
The420Guy
Guest
Voting: Activists Are Considering Campaigns In Six Counties Where They Say
Prosecutors Are Not Sympathetic To Patients And Are Not Upholding Prop. 215.
Paula Kamena would prefer to be a prosecutor, plain and simple, tackling
any crime that dares to rear its head in tony Marin County. But these days,
the district attorney of this famously liberal Bay Area enclave is finding
herself a target.
Advocates of medical marijuana are irate over what they consider Kamena's
unsympathetic approach to patients on pot, and they want to oust the
first-term district attorney from office.
The effort against Kamena, set to culminate in a recall vote May 22, marks
the start of what medicinal pot supporters vow will be a groundswell push
around California. Recall campaigns are being considered against district
attorneys in five other small counties where those who approve of medicinal
marijuana use believe they've gotten a bum deal since voters passed
Proposition 215, the 1996 ballot initiative that legalized it.
Ever since, law enforcement officials up and down California have grappled
with the vagaries of the landmark medical marijuana law, and the results
have been anything but uniform.
Police and prosecutors in some parts of the state have given medical
marijuana users a wide berth. Others, cognizant that federal law still
criminalizes any use of marijuana, continued to hit hard against all but
the most compelling medical cases.
The law itself has been subjected to numerous legal challenges, and this
year is set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kamena's boosters say she has been compassionate and fair, one of the few
prosecutors in the state to adopt specific guidelines to help Marin police
cull legitimate patients from drug dealers and recreational pot smokers.
"If you possess an amount consistent with personal use, we don't
prosecute," Kamena said. "If you are a woman with breast cancer or an AIDS
patient, we don't prosecute."
Since taking office, Kamena has pushed just one medical pot case to trial.
Ten more remain in the pipeline, and 26 other defendants have struck plea
bargains. An additional 37 cases were dismissed.
In short, Kamena said, Marin County is being forced to hold a recall--at a
cost of $500,000--over a microscopic fraction of her trial load.
That medical marijuana became the centerpiece of the fight against Kamena
is something of a fluke.
The recall was ignited last year by a group of parents angry over
child-custody decisions in Marin courts. Their petition drive flagged, but
medical marijuana supporters sensed an opening and revived the effort. They
flooded area supermarkets with volunteers and hired professionals to land
the signatures of more than 20,000 Marin residents on a petition.
Kamena has countered with the support of the Marin establishment. William
H. Stephens, a retired Marin judge, castigated the ouster attempt as
"political terrorism." Marin Sheriff Robert T. Doyle said Kamena's foes act
as if "marijuana is totally legal and everyone qualifies--be it a hangnail,
cramps, anything."
Kamena called her foes "thuggish" and questioned the source of funds for
the petition drive. "Are these the people," Kamena asked, "who sell drugs
to our kids?"
Lynette Shaw, founding director of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana
and a leader in the recall campaign, brushed aside Kamena's insinuations.
Though recall advocates haven't filed a campaign expense report, Shaw said
she personally contributed $6,500, and most of the rest came from donation
jars scattered around the community.
Shaw said limits set by Kamena--possession of at most six mature plants and
less than one-half pound of dried marijuana--are too strict. She also
contends that the district attorney's guidelines have cultivated
intolerance among police in Marin, where three of four voters supported
Proposition 215.
"Paula Kamena gave the green light to the cops," Shaw said. "They're
hassling these poor patients to death."
Shaw sees them every day. The Marin Alliance operates the county's only
dispensary for medicinal pot out of a former doctor's office in Fairfax, a
free-spirited enclave at the foot of the west Marin hills.
The air is thick with the scent of dried cannabis. People trickle in--some
in motorized wheelchairs, some weakened by the obvious effects of AIDS--to
get baggies of pot.
In the past, Shaw said, police made it a point to call the alliance to
check its registry of 1,300 patients before making a pot arrest. But that
practice ebbed, she said, after Kamena won her seat in 1998. The result,
Shaw said, has been what she considers unfounded arrests and the seizure of
pot from scores of needy patients.
"Any district attorney who tries to subvert Proposition 215 doesn't deserve
to be in office," Shaw concluded. "I hope this recall sets a precedent."
Medical marijuana advocates are considering ouster efforts against top
prosecutors in Placer, El Dorado, Sonoma, Shasta and Calaveras counties.
The prime force behind that push is the American Medical Marijuana Assn., a
nonprofit advocacy group that has assisted in Marin.
Jay Cavanaugh, the association's Los Angeles coordinator and shepherd of
the recall push, said he would prefer to avoid the ballot but sees no
choice unless local district attorneys begin crafting compassionate
regulations.
"Since the passage of Proposition 215," he said, "it has been chaos."
So far, the movement has focused on small counties, where a petition
campaign can cost as little as $15,000.
In a few counties, pot proponents have attempted to build bridges to
conservative anti-tax crusaders. Their pitch: Hauling pot patients into
court hurts cash-strapped county governments, which also risk high-dollar
civil judgments over mishandled prosecutions.
Efforts to craft legislation in Sacramento to provide universal
certification cards for pot patients crashed in each of the past two years.
A bill was reintroduced last week, but insiders say a big fight remains to
win over scrupulously cautious Gov. Gray Davis.
The current law is "very poorly written," Kamena said. Prosecutors all over
the state "are screaming for some sort of consistency on this law."
Newshawk: Cannabis News - marijuana, hemp, and cannabis news
Pubdate: Mon, 12 Feb 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Address: Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Fax: (213) 237-7679
Feedback: https://www.latimes.com/siteservices/talk_contacts.htm
Website: Los Angeles Times
Forum: https://www.latimes.com/discuss/
Prosecutors Are Not Sympathetic To Patients And Are Not Upholding Prop. 215.
Paula Kamena would prefer to be a prosecutor, plain and simple, tackling
any crime that dares to rear its head in tony Marin County. But these days,
the district attorney of this famously liberal Bay Area enclave is finding
herself a target.
Advocates of medical marijuana are irate over what they consider Kamena's
unsympathetic approach to patients on pot, and they want to oust the
first-term district attorney from office.
The effort against Kamena, set to culminate in a recall vote May 22, marks
the start of what medicinal pot supporters vow will be a groundswell push
around California. Recall campaigns are being considered against district
attorneys in five other small counties where those who approve of medicinal
marijuana use believe they've gotten a bum deal since voters passed
Proposition 215, the 1996 ballot initiative that legalized it.
Ever since, law enforcement officials up and down California have grappled
with the vagaries of the landmark medical marijuana law, and the results
have been anything but uniform.
Police and prosecutors in some parts of the state have given medical
marijuana users a wide berth. Others, cognizant that federal law still
criminalizes any use of marijuana, continued to hit hard against all but
the most compelling medical cases.
The law itself has been subjected to numerous legal challenges, and this
year is set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kamena's boosters say she has been compassionate and fair, one of the few
prosecutors in the state to adopt specific guidelines to help Marin police
cull legitimate patients from drug dealers and recreational pot smokers.
"If you possess an amount consistent with personal use, we don't
prosecute," Kamena said. "If you are a woman with breast cancer or an AIDS
patient, we don't prosecute."
Since taking office, Kamena has pushed just one medical pot case to trial.
Ten more remain in the pipeline, and 26 other defendants have struck plea
bargains. An additional 37 cases were dismissed.
In short, Kamena said, Marin County is being forced to hold a recall--at a
cost of $500,000--over a microscopic fraction of her trial load.
That medical marijuana became the centerpiece of the fight against Kamena
is something of a fluke.
The recall was ignited last year by a group of parents angry over
child-custody decisions in Marin courts. Their petition drive flagged, but
medical marijuana supporters sensed an opening and revived the effort. They
flooded area supermarkets with volunteers and hired professionals to land
the signatures of more than 20,000 Marin residents on a petition.
Kamena has countered with the support of the Marin establishment. William
H. Stephens, a retired Marin judge, castigated the ouster attempt as
"political terrorism." Marin Sheriff Robert T. Doyle said Kamena's foes act
as if "marijuana is totally legal and everyone qualifies--be it a hangnail,
cramps, anything."
Kamena called her foes "thuggish" and questioned the source of funds for
the petition drive. "Are these the people," Kamena asked, "who sell drugs
to our kids?"
Lynette Shaw, founding director of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana
and a leader in the recall campaign, brushed aside Kamena's insinuations.
Though recall advocates haven't filed a campaign expense report, Shaw said
she personally contributed $6,500, and most of the rest came from donation
jars scattered around the community.
Shaw said limits set by Kamena--possession of at most six mature plants and
less than one-half pound of dried marijuana--are too strict. She also
contends that the district attorney's guidelines have cultivated
intolerance among police in Marin, where three of four voters supported
Proposition 215.
"Paula Kamena gave the green light to the cops," Shaw said. "They're
hassling these poor patients to death."
Shaw sees them every day. The Marin Alliance operates the county's only
dispensary for medicinal pot out of a former doctor's office in Fairfax, a
free-spirited enclave at the foot of the west Marin hills.
The air is thick with the scent of dried cannabis. People trickle in--some
in motorized wheelchairs, some weakened by the obvious effects of AIDS--to
get baggies of pot.
In the past, Shaw said, police made it a point to call the alliance to
check its registry of 1,300 patients before making a pot arrest. But that
practice ebbed, she said, after Kamena won her seat in 1998. The result,
Shaw said, has been what she considers unfounded arrests and the seizure of
pot from scores of needy patients.
"Any district attorney who tries to subvert Proposition 215 doesn't deserve
to be in office," Shaw concluded. "I hope this recall sets a precedent."
Medical marijuana advocates are considering ouster efforts against top
prosecutors in Placer, El Dorado, Sonoma, Shasta and Calaveras counties.
The prime force behind that push is the American Medical Marijuana Assn., a
nonprofit advocacy group that has assisted in Marin.
Jay Cavanaugh, the association's Los Angeles coordinator and shepherd of
the recall push, said he would prefer to avoid the ballot but sees no
choice unless local district attorneys begin crafting compassionate
regulations.
"Since the passage of Proposition 215," he said, "it has been chaos."
So far, the movement has focused on small counties, where a petition
campaign can cost as little as $15,000.
In a few counties, pot proponents have attempted to build bridges to
conservative anti-tax crusaders. Their pitch: Hauling pot patients into
court hurts cash-strapped county governments, which also risk high-dollar
civil judgments over mishandled prosecutions.
Efforts to craft legislation in Sacramento to provide universal
certification cards for pot patients crashed in each of the past two years.
A bill was reintroduced last week, but insiders say a big fight remains to
win over scrupulously cautious Gov. Gray Davis.
The current law is "very poorly written," Kamena said. Prosecutors all over
the state "are screaming for some sort of consistency on this law."
Newshawk: Cannabis News - marijuana, hemp, and cannabis news
Pubdate: Mon, 12 Feb 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Address: Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Fax: (213) 237-7679
Feedback: https://www.latimes.com/siteservices/talk_contacts.htm
Website: Los Angeles Times
Forum: https://www.latimes.com/discuss/