Jerry Brown politicizing medicine

Here's a link to the post I did on the decision by Calif. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown (looking more and more like his father every day) to challenge a decision by a Calif. appeals court to invalidate the provision of California's SD 420, intended to implement the Prop. 215 medical marijuana initiative, that set limits/guidelines/whatever for how many plants a patient could have. The court correctly ruled that Prop. 215, which didn't have limits, was passed by the people as an initiative, and can only be changed through the initiative process. So the legislated limit was of course illegiotimate.

Brown would make better use of his authority as attorney general to direct police agencies to adopt uniform practices regarding patients, to wit, no arrest if you have a doctor's recommendation rather than arresting and "letting the courts sort it out." The courts have been pretty clear: however reluctant the police may be -- and many agencies and individual cops are still dragging their feet after 12 years, trying to nullify the law through sheer harassment -- their obligation is to enforce California's law and facilitate the use of medical marijuana for patients with a recommendation from a duly-licensed physician.

As I know from research for my book, "Waiting to Inhale: The Politics of Medical Marijuana," the drafters of Prop. 215 intended for decisions about the amount a patient uses to be decided between patients and doctors, not by cops, judges or attorneys general.