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Americans for Safe Access update: Fighting for patients, from counties to Congress PDF Print E-mail
Written by Rebecca Saltzman   
Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is pursuing litigation in localities throughout California to support safe, legal access. Its local affiliates hold regular meetings and special meetings to address events as they unfold. Meanwhile, right after opening its new Washington DC office, ASA launched its lobbying effort for a bill amendment attempting to end federal raids. It is supported by grants and contributions.
Recently ASA moved its headquarters to a larger office in the same building, 1322 Webster St # 402, Oakland CA 94612 plus an exciting new email address at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . ASA has been expanding and revamping its website to provide ever better resources for patients, doctors, attorneys and reform activists at AmericansForSafeAccess.org.

ASA sues Butte County over ban on collective cultivation

Citing law enforcement's disregard for the state's medical marijuana law, ASA filed a lawsuit to challenge Butte County's attempt to ban private patient collectives. The group lawsuit was filed on behalf of a seven-person private collective run by David Williams. Just prior to harvest last September, Butte law enforcement conducted a warrantless search at his property in Paradise, CA, and forced him to uproot and destroy more than two dozen plants or face arrest and prosecution.

{quotes right}“We were told that it was not lawful to grow collectively for multiple patients,”{/quotes} 53-year old patient and collective member David Williams said of the 2005 incident. “Detective Jacob Hancock, who took part in the raid, ignored our evidence and arguments that we were in no way breaking state law.” Collective member Rebecca Conley was at the raid, and pleaded with the police as her medicine was being destroyed. “What they did to us and others in Butte County is unacceptable, and must be stopped,” said Conley. In addition to the raid at Williams' home, the County made numerous other raids on similar private patient collectives in the autumn of 2005.
    
The lawsuit was filed in Superior Court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as damages in excess of $75,000 and attorneys fees. The lawsuit names as defendants the County, DA Mike Ramsey, the Sheriff and Hancock.
    
“Not only did these officials break the spirit and letter of the state's medical marijuana law in denying patients the right to associate collectively,” said ASA's Chief Counsel Joe Elford. “They also violated his Fourth Amendment right against unlawful search and seizure.”

Because of the threat by County officials to arrest and prosecute collective members who still cultivate, many patients are fearful of what might happen next. Williams, however, is intent to harvest a crop this year, despite harassment, intimidation and threats of reprisal. He and collective members Gary Marsh, Peter Jeffers and Bruce Thompson are counting on the lawsuit so they can cultivate without interference by the county this year.

Elford elaborated that state Health & Safety Code Section 11362.775, spells out, in no uncertain terms, that qualified patients “who associate within the State of California in order collectively or cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes, shall not solely on the basis of that fact be subject to state criminal sanctions.” Butte County and others that choose to ignore this law are advised that they will meet with legal resistance at the hands of patients and their advocates.

For a copy of the lawsuit filed against Butte County: safeaccessnow.org/downloads/Butte_Complaint.pdf.

Patient evades jail, is granted medical marijuana on probation

As a result of testing positive while on probation in May 2006, Los Angeles  patient Rachel Jones* was charged with violating her probation conditions. Ignoring her doctor's recommendation that qualified her as a medical marijuana patient, her probation officer recommended jail time.

Turning to her LA public defender, Rachel fought the threat of jail time. Unfortunately, her attorney did not believe she had a viable defense. When Rachel went to court, the judge sentenced her to a year in jail. With nowhere else to turn, she called ASA for help.

Elford contacted the public defender's office to report her substandard legal representation, and encouraged them to utilize the legal decision in People v. Jones, which upheld a doctor's recommendation is all that is needed for a jury to establish patient status. To her surprise, when Rachel went to court to turn herself in, her attorney got the court to reverse her sentence. {quotes}Not only did the court set aside her sentence, but her attorney was able to get her probation conditions amended by court order to allow her to use marijuana while on probation.{/quotes}

An African-American woman on a fixed income, Rachel, like many others, was vulnerable to a system that mistreats patients and those with limited means of defense. ASA is determined to fight for the rights of patients like her, and has been working with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to help improve a policy that exempts patients on probation or parole from testing for marijuana.

Support grows with record 'yes' vote for MMJ bill in Congress

One month after opening its national office, ASA started to work on Capitol Hill by helping build support for the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment that would have prohibited the Department of Justice from using Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) funds to conduct raids, arrests and prosecutions of medical cannabis patients and providers in the 11 states that have adopted medical cannabis laws. While the bill did not pass, it won a record number of votes on the House floor in June, 163, and ASA's 2006 strategy helped create a base of support for future victories.

{quotes right}“The House missed an opportunity to show support for seriously ill people, to prove that it believes in States rights, and to reallocate our precious law enforcement funds to programs that are supported by all citizens and state governments,”{/quotes} said ASA's founder and director Steph Sherer. “With this record number of yes votes the amendment received, ASA and the medical cannabis community continue to build momentum toward reform.”

To help US Representatives Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) build support for their bi-partisan amendment, ASA launched an aggressive multi-faceted campaign that included citizen-advocate lobbying visits, production of our first-ever video news release (distributed to more than 2000 media outlets), a full-page advertisement in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, and coordinated grassroots advocacy, generating hundreds of phone calls and emails urging Congress to end the federal raids.

On June 19 and 20, two teams of ASA member patients, doctors, and scientific researchers met with more than 20 Congressional offices and left information in an additional 60 offices. This was the first time cannabis patients, doctors, and researchers collectively lobbied members of Congress and key staff.

Additionally, it was the first opportunity many Congressional staffers had to meet and talk with medical cannabis experts and patients - let alone an individual who was raided by the DEA for being a law-abiding patient; Garry Silva, raided in March, had joined the lobbying teams in DC.

 
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