GARDEN GROVE – The city has paid out $139,000 in attorney’s fees to medical marijuana advocates, bringing to an end a four-year court battle in which the city fought the return of a patient’s 8 grams in spite of repeated court decisions ordering the city to give his marijuana back.

Americans for Safe Access received the check Wednesday as part of a settlement agreement in the case involving Felix Kha, whose marijuana was seized during a traffic stop. He was issued a citation.

Including this payment, the city has spent about $250,000 on this case, City Attorney Thomas Nixon said today.

Even at inflated dispensary prices eight grams of marijuana is worth less than $200. I know a quarter million dollars is just a drop in the bucket compared to the city budget, but when it looks like you’ve got a hiring freeze and the local education district is wailing about state budget cuts, blowing that much bank in an unsuccessful attempt to not give back legal medical marijuana to a legal medical marijuana patient in a state that overwhelmingly supports legal medical marijuana, why, that’s just looks bad.

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a strong proponent of changing federal law to allow use of marijuana for medical and personal use, said he and other members of Congress are working to end this dichotomy between federal and state law.

“I believe federal laws relating to marijuana especially when they are different from state laws, are counter-productive,” he said.

But to spend $250,000 to prevent an adult from consuming a small amount of marijuana for medical purposes or otherwise is nonsensical, Rohrabacher said.

“Anybody who can say with a straight face that spending that amount of money on this matter in a time when resources are tight, cannot be taken seriously,” he said.

It’s not that taxing marijuana would necessarily rescue the economy, President Obama, it’s that spending money on a proven futile attempt to stop adults from smoking pot is a luxury we can no longer afford.

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