A new policy memo issued Monday by the Justice Department told prosecutors that pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in states that allow medical marijuana. The guidelines do, however, make it clear that federal agents will go after people whose distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes.
[Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve] Cooley contends a vast majority of several hundred outlets his office investigated aren’t following state law. Initially, the law allowed authorized marijuana users to grow their own plants, but lawmakers revised the law in 2003 to allow collectives to provide pot grown by members.
Cooley said he would target stores who are profiting and selling to people who don’t qualify for medicinal marijuana.
Cooley said his office has been assessing the rush of marijuana dispensaries for the past two years and has provided training for his staff over the past several months in anticipation of filing cases.
Some legal observers believe the first case Cooley files since his announcement will show how egregious the illegal behavior has become among medical marijuana outlets.
“He’s going to find a dispensary that is way over the line,” said Rory Little, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law.
Among the candidates are Jeffrey Joseph, who runs Organica and was arrested in August but has yet to be charged. Authorities recovered 452 marijuana plants, more than 100 pounds of hashish and more than $100,000 in cash from his home and dispensaries in Marina del Rey and Culver City.
How will the people of Los Angeles react to this? Will they see six-figures of cash and hundreds of pounds of hash and consider that to be their intent in passing Prop 215? Will this trigger a backlash against medical marijuana that could ripple across the entire country? Or have the people become accustomed to the dispensaries and react harshly to Cooley’s actions?
However this plays out, one thing the medical marijuana supporters in Los Angeles County should be doing is brushing up on the concept of jury nullification. Juries are the final arbiters of the law in our system, though few people know it. A juror – you – can refuse to convict a person of any crime if you believe that conviction to be unjust, even if there is videotape of the person committing the crime and CSI has sixteen different pieces of forensic evidence proving a person’s culpability. Judges will tell you you must judge the facts of the case and whether the defendant is guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, but they do not tell you that you can judge the merits of the law itself.
In other words, a law can pass with 100% of the statehouse voting for it and the governor signing it, and a person can be caught red-handed violating that law, but you, as a juror, can set that person free if you believe convicting him would be unjust. Your one vote for “not guilty” can hang the entire jury even as the other eleven vote “guilty”, and the courts, the police, even the president himself cannot do anything about it or punish you in any way for your verdict.
Educate yourself, Angelenos! Visit the Fully Informed Jury Association today!
Topics: California, FIJA. Fully Informed Jury Association, jury nullification, Los Angeles, Steve Cooley
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[...] New Obama memo not stopping LA DA Cooley’s plan to bust “around 100%” of dispensaries [...]
I think your right… Jury Nullification should be in the lexicon of every marijuana law reform activist. That, IMHO, is probably the best way to send the message to our lawmakers. If the courts no longer get convictions… then hmmmmmmmm…
OK. Here’s the thing. Obama is kind of taking the “states rights” position. Therefore if the CA DA does what he says he’s going to do, and he can convince whomever needs convincing that dispensaries are operating outside the intent of the law, Obama and the justice department may actually enter CA to bust the “evil” pot users, while leaving the “law abiding” pot users untouched. That will make a mess. While many folks may see Obama’s memo as a positive move, my guess, and its only a guess, is that the dispensaries that the CA DA targets will get crushed by both CA law enforcement and the justice department. Obama’s guidelines might actually support the CA DA’s position. Sounds like the drug war is getting a shot in the arm by CA locals.
It looks like Obama is trying. It looks like he wants to overcome. That’s what worries me. Bush looked like he was protecting Americans. Bill “didn’t inhale” Clinton looked like he might take a gentler approach toward the issue. It “looks” like we have real momentum, but if Obama changes his mind, we could have a really bad day.
Obama is, at one time, the greatest example of what somebody who has smoked pot might still accomplish and the poster boy for quitting marijuana. Its a toss up. Iono.