ASA sues California DMV for revoking driver’s license of medical marijuana patient
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 6:42 pm | By: Radical Russ
Merced, CA — A lawsuit was filed today by medical marijuana advocacy organization Americans for Safe Access (ASA) against the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on behalf of Rose Johnson, a 53-year-old patient from Atwater. Despite Ms. Johnson’s clean driving record, not having caused an accident in 37 years of driving, the DMV revoked her license on July 26, 2008 because of her status as a medical marijuana patient. The DMV refused to renew Ms. Johnson’s license only after obtaining her medical records and finding out that she was a qualified medical marijuana patient. According to the DMV, Ms. Johnson’s license was revoked “because of…[an] addiction to, or habitual use of, [a] drug,” thereby rendering her unable to safely operate a motor vehicle, even though no evidence existed to substantiate this claim.
“The DMV cannot simply disregard California’s medical marijuana law,” said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who is representing Ms. Johnson in her claim against the DMV. “When the voters of California enacted the Compassionate Use Act, they never intended to authorize the DMV to strip medical marijuana patients of their drivers’ licenses,” continued Elford. “The DMV should not be in the business of revoking the licenses of drivers like Ms. Johnson simply because she is a medical marijuana patient.”
Advocates assert that the DMV policy of suspending and revoking the licenses of medical marijuana patients is widespread, occurring in at at least 8 California counties, including Alameda, Butte, Contra Costa, Glenn, Merced, Placer, Sacramento, and Sonoma. License revocations by the DMV, which have been based on a person’s status as a medical marijuana patient, are often rationalized by calling the drivers “drug abusers” despite no evidence of the claim.
I just recently drove through Northern California. There are many drivers whose licenses need to be suspended, and it has nothing to do with medical cannabis. In fact, I think some of those drivers could use some medical cannabis to calm their road rage.
But seriously, this is part of the institutional backlash against medical cannabis. They have lost at the ballot box and in the court of public opinion. So now, resigned to the fact that medical cannabis isn’t going anywhere, they’re making it difficult to get and costlier to keep. Sure, your doctor says that using cannabis helps alleviate your pain, but is that worth your driver’s license? How about your job? You sure you don’t want to just take the approved drugs, the ones that poison your liver and drain your bank account and have half-a-commercial’s worth of side effects? You really want to be unemployed and unable to drive so you can grow your three marijuana plants, carry your two ounces, and get actual relief from your symptoms that doesn’t leave you in a narcotic stupor?
Your choice: your health or your car. Your medical marijuana or your job. That’s what it is coming down to.
I’ve heard nobody yet propose revoking the driver’s licenses of those who use prescription sleep aids, like Ambien. Many other prescriptions specifically tell the user not to operate a vehicle; perhaps we should just do a temporary driver’s license suspension for the length of the prescription? And somebody please tell me why there are still parking lots at bars? There can’t be that many spaces for taxis and designated drivers. You can’t look at me with a straight face in a state where Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan all get to keep their driver’s licenses and tell me that a medical cannabis patient should lose their license for life!
Thanks, Urb, That is the carrot, this is the stick:
I’ve posted this comment before, and I’m going to keep on doing it until it picks up steam. And it will work if we all join in. Since I contribute to Democratic causes, I get a lot of fund raising requests (both in email and snail mail).
Starting today, I am sending all the requests back saying;
A personal word to (whoever has sent the letter):
I’m not sending you guys another penny until I am assured that you will demonstrate a true desire to rethink and CHANGE our failed drug policies, that have only resulted in more arrests AND more drug use.
Our drug policies should be based on science, not politics.
Take a page from the Netherlands, and from states that have legalized medical cannabis, and decriminalized small amount of cannabis for personal use. These are place where illicit drug use has gone down.
Then I sign my name, address and phone number.
Use your own words, but hit them where is hurts: in the pocketbook.
Good take Brinna…..
I am trying not to become furious… but I am losing that battle. This article was particularly depressing after reading the bona fides of Daschel, Biden, and Holder vis a vis cannabis.
AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
OK, no anger, no depression. Activism!!! It is the only answer: step up, speak out, do one thing (at least) everyday to move the cause ahead. One letter, one blog post, one conversation, one membership in an anti-drug war organization, one donation, one attempt to network, one anything — holding the intention that the status quo WILL change for the better; that rationality, and truth will finally ascend. If 20 million of us ingest cannabis regularly, well, dammit, that is a lot of power if it is coordinated and directed to the same end: freedom and civil rights, compassion and community.