Letitia, Ashton Kutcher called. He wants his catchphrase back.
I’ve been working for NORML now, as a volunteer and then as paid staff, for five years. In that time I have met some of the greatest lawyers in marijuana law reform, men and women who wrote Prop 215 (California’s medical marijuana law), Measure 67 (Oregon’s medical marijuana law), and have litigated among them thousands of marijuana cases.
One thing I have learned is that there are lawyers and then there are people who went to school and got a law degree. That brings me to Letitia Pepper.
Ms. Pepper has been spreading disinformation, misinterpretation, and scaremongering about Prop 19 in an attempt to fool less-educated marijuana smokers into voting against their own best interests and maintaining prohibition of marijuana by voting no on Prop 19. Letitia touts her law degree and patient status as she uses confusing legalese to obfuscate the issues regarding Prop 19. She even calls me out personally on a double-sided, single-spaced, half-inch-margin letter-sized flyer she’s passed out to patrons of various California hemp expos.
Now she has published her latest screed, entitled “Don’t Get Punked! Prop. 19 LIES When It Tells You that Recreational Use Can BE Legalized! And It WILL Seriously Impair MEDCIAL Patients’ Current State Rights!” I could rip through her analysis like a badger through a paper bag, but who the hell am I – just a college dropout, ex-musician, pot writer. She’s got a law degree!
So I will leave the rest of the retort to famed marijuana attorney, J. David Nick, who was Steve Kubby’s lawyer and successfully defended him for 200 plants, who was Dennis Peron’s lawyer and successfully defended him for his medical cannabis sales, and who has never lost a medical marijuana case in a California court, whose replies will debunk Letitia’s “analysis” one by one in italics.
DON’T GET PUNKED!
The reason that the federal government gave up prosecuting medical marijuana patients was that the Controlled Substance Act (CSA), the federal law that makes marijuana a Schedule 1 drug, is intended to address the illegal recreational use of drugs.
And California’s Compassionate Use Act, Prop. 215, allows only the medical use of marijuana. So the feds had to give up when patients fought back.
The reason the Fed’s stopped their raids has NOTHING to do with the fact it was medical; the reason is 2 words: Obama and Holder.
Marijuana is still listed as a Schedule 1 drug, and until its listing is changed, any recreational use will bring the feds roaring in to SUCCESSFULLY (because it is still listed a Schedule 1 drug) challenge Prop. 19 — if it passes.
Anybody who thinks a federal challenge will be successful is just not realistic; the very first section of the FCSA explicitly permits states to enforce and create their own laws and that is why every attempt to have Prop. 215 ruled preempted by federal law has failed in multiple appellate court cases — that result has nothing to do whatsoever with the fact it’s medical.
Did you know that it is the “dominance of recreational use” which is the “primary qualifying factor for Schedule I, even when there are medical uses which in theory disqualify them from being eligible for Schedule I”? So, by voting in a law that allows recreational use, you’re actually DELAYING the removal of marijuana from Schedule 1!
(See http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Controlled:Substances:Act.html )
The only message Prop. 19 sends is, “Come and get us! Take away the good rights we’ve fought for to use marijuana as medicine! Keep marijuana a Schedule 1 drug!”
The argument that yes on 19 means delayed reclassification is also a faulty argument; if “dominance of recreational use” were the ONLY factor considered in reclassification then cocaine, which is a widely used hospital anesthetic along with all the downers which people find very recreational to use, would also be schedule I; so the claim is just baloney. Reclassification will be accomplished sooner once they see the sky did not fall.
If Prop. 19 passes, and the feds invalidate all the sections related to recreational use, guess what? All the bad changes that Prop. 19 makes to medical use stay in place! Because Prop. 19 contains a section called “Severability,” which provides that if any section is invalidated, the rest of Prop. 19 stays the law. So that anything relating to marijuana — cultivation, distribution, processing, transportation, etc. — will be subjected to unlimited taxation, control and regulation.
Since 19 will not be invalidated, then this outlandish claim of medical being left controlled and taxed by local governments is also not correct, invalidation of 19 is just not realistic as it has been demonstrated over the past 10 years. Every government challenge under the theory of federal preemption has failed in the courts.
And patients, who’ve had the right to grow as much marijuana as they need for their personal use, will be limited to one five-foot square “garden” per parcel of land regardless of how many patients live on the parcel.
The claim that Prop 19 limits the amount a patient can grow is false also. Prop 19 explicitly exempts Prop 215 and SB420; and actually you can grow more than 25 square feet as long as it was for “personal use”. The difference is that the 25 square foot is an amount where you can’t get arrested and beyond that amount the person has a right to defend their grow in court on the grounds it was grown for personal use, SO ACTUALLY PROP 19 ALLOWS YOU TO GROW MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER DREAM OF AND AS AN ATTORNEY DEFENDING THESE CASES, I’D MUCH RATHER HAVE THIS STRAIGHT-FORWARD LAW THAN THE TECHNICAL INTRICACIES OF A MEDICAL DEFENSE. This means the end of prohibition within short order as law enforcement, the courts and the system would collapse if they prosecuted every person or even half of the new growers. The end is near people. This is called “opening the flood gates, a term invented by prohibitionists as they know what happens to prohibition when you crack the door open.
And collectives, which can legally exist and distribute marijuana to patient members under current law, can actually be legally banned under Prop. 19 in each and every city! If Prop. 19 passes, people will have to go to “Oaksterdam” (Oakland) or whatever city might allow dispensaries to exist — and since over 138 cities in Southern California have banned collectives (a fight we’ll win if Prop. 19 does not pass), don’t hold your breath waiting for them to allow collectives if Prop. 19 passes!
The claim that Prop. 19 will allow cities to close collectives is not correct; as my prior detailed opinion piece explained, Prop 215 and SB 420 are EXPLICITLY excluded from the reach of municipal regulators; thus, recreational will be controlled but medical is protected like the holy cow under prop 19.
There is no protection from federal law for recreational use of any drug! (Can you imagine trying to pass a law allowing the recreational use of Oxycodone?) That is why, if Prop. 19 passes, it will ruin California’s excellent medical marijuana laws and the rights we’ve fought for for so long! Vote NO on Prop. 19!
THAT IS RIGHT — DON’T GET PUNKED BY A CADRE OF MISGUIDED LAW ENFORCEMENT FIGURES THAT SEEK TO PROTECT THE FINANCIAL LOSS WHICH WILL COME TO THEM WHEN THEY DON’T HAVE 800,000 ARRESTS TO JUSTIFY THIER OUTRAGEOUSLY BLOATED BUDGET OR THE FREE MONEY WHICH COMES TO THEM THROUGH ASSET FORFEITURE. COME ON PEOPLE AND HELP KICK THE FLOOD GATES WIDE OPEN AND END MARIJUANA PROHIBITION NOT JUST ON CALIFORNIA BUT IN THE GREAT USA. VOTE YES ON PROPOSITION 19
Loading ...
do not live in California, so Prop 19 does not apply to me. However, Of californian’s I ask this :
1. Please keep in you minds the Damage done not ONLY to California but to the rest of America from the Violent Gangs that Plaque’s our streets.
2. To keep in mind We are also oppressed by government.
3. To keep in mind the Horable Killings of thousands of Mexicans, that is still on going.
4. To keep in mind our Econamy and what help that Prop 19 can give is better than Spending Money that we don’t have on a War that we can’t win.
5. To keep in mind that in this Issue you DON”T stand alone.
And Finally I ask you to remember that When you Go Vote on Nov. 2 That Our hopes and hearts go with you. If I was californian, I would Say “YES ON PROP 19?
Go california Lead us into a Better way of Life.
One thing that does give me heart is that the prohibs are appealing to the people who support legalization to vote against their own interests. That means they are playing in OUR court. They cannot just trot out the same ole propaganda, they have to say ” we know you want legalization, but not THIS BILL”. Well they can’t get away with that forever, they know they have lost and are merely prolonging the inevitable. If prop 19 doesn’t pass, though I hope to God it does, I am extremely confident that the next one will pass.