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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US: Supervisors pass marijuana ordinance
Heather Cassell, h.cassell@ebar.com Bay Area Reporter
Tuesday 21 Nov 2006 The San Francisco Board of Supervisors last week voted 8-3 to make marijuana offenses a low priority for city police. The legislation sponsored by Supervisor Tom Ammiano is up for its final vote by the board on Tuesday, November 21 and then will be sent to Mayor Gavin Newsom for his review to either be signed into law or vetoed within 10 days. "The forecast looks good. The mayor just said that he does not want [to] veto it," Ammiano said Monday. "What makes this ordinance significant is that it essentially is excluding all marijuana-related offenses with the exception of the special circumstances that are set forth in the ordinance, " said Public Defender Jeff Adachi. "It's certainly a broader than medical marijuana use and provides greater protection for those who choose to use marijuana." According to Adachi, between 5 percent and 10 percent of the 20,000 clients that the public defender's office represents every year involve marijuana-related offenses. The most common are violations of state health and safety code section 11360, which is for sales and possession for sale, which are between 15 percent and 16 percent of the cases handled by the office. Adachi said that they have seen a decrease over the last five years of arrests relating to possession for medical marijuana with a valid California medical marijuana identification card. "We've seen fewer cases involving medical marijuana users in the system, but they still pop up from time to time," said Adachi. "That's a smaller percentage, but there are some cases we have seen where individuals are arrested and later it is determined that they have a medical marijuana card. Under the law, those cases should not be prosecuted at all, but those are more the exception to the rule." Adachi added that it's important to have an actual law on the books, "What this does is it contains a clear permanent policy as to where marijuana cases fall within the hierarchy of crimes to be prosecuted." The police department's narcotics unit has remained neutral on its position regarding the ordinance. Bilen Mesfin, deputy public information officer for District Attorney Kamala Harris, issued this statement, "The district attorney's top priority is prosecuting serious and violent crime. Simple possession of marijuana cases involving adults are already a low priority. Marijuana cases make up less than 10 percent of the 4,500 to 5,000 narcotics cases this office prosecutes each year, and those cases primarily involve sales to police officers. In terms of medical marijuana, the district attorney's position remains consistent: The office will not prosecute people who use or provide marijuana solely for medicinal purposes." Proponents of the legislation were optimistic that Newsom would sign it. "We've certainly haven't heard anything negative. I don't think that we've had a definite statement that he's going to sign it, but I think that all of the vibes have been positive," said Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project. "We've heard informally that he's supportive." "I'm not sure if we are going to get a signature, but we do have eight votes on it, so it kind of looks like that it will carry through," said Greg Shaw, president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club. "It certainly would be in tune with what the majority of San Franciscans keep voting on over and over again and say they want." "I think he will sign it," said Dennis Peron, author of the Compassionate Care Act of 1996, better known as Proposition 215. "If he doesn't it will be his undoing because the people of San Francisco have voted three times to legalize marijuana in some form or another – Proposition P, Proposition W, and Proposition 215. They don't want their money wasted on marijuana enforcement. If he doesn't sign it, 81 percent of the people will be very angry and he will have a hard time being re-elected." Legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana has been a long journey. Peron worked with the late Harvey Milk during the late 1970s on Proposition W to stop the district attorney and the police department from arresting and prosecuting people involved in cultivation, transfer, or possession of marijuana. That passed in 1978 with 56.99 percent of the vote. Thirteen years later, San Franciscans voted in favor of Proposition P by 80 percent to restore marijuana as a medical substance and not penalize physicians from prescribing cannabis. Shortly after, in 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215 by 56 percent, legalizing medical marijuana. Since then 10 states have medical marijuana use laws in place and other cities and counties such as Oakland, Santa Monica, Santa Cruz, and Seattle have passed similar legislation to make marijuana arrests a low priority. "Harvey Milk lives. That's all I can say," said Peron. "It was a part of his agenda [and] I think that Harvey Milk's dream is coming true." In other marijuana-related news, Mirken also was pleased with California Superior Court Judge William Nevitt's tentative ruling last week rejecting the effort by San Diego County to thwart the state's medical marijuana law. San Diego County has refused to implement a state-mandated program to provide identification cards to qualified medical marijuana patients. San Diego was joined by Merced and San Bernardino counties in the action. -- Please sign these petitions: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/search?q=Cannabis+ WebBooks Amazing Amazon Store: http://astore.amazon.co.uk/webbooks05
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