Welcome to the jungle, Jerry

Heaven help me, I am actually rather pleased that old Jerry Brown -- who now that he is bald looks like the spittin' image of his father -- has finally exerted himself to get into the governor's race in California. Of course, having scared off most of the other Democrats with the rumor of his likely candidacy -- and in the case of Dianne Feinstein being too smart to try fro a job no sane person should want given the mess the politicians have made of the state -- he didn't have much choice if he didn't want to cede the job to Meg Whitman. Unless he's completely lost his touch in his old age, he should at least make the race and, if he wins, the government and all its follies interesting. I expect I'll disagree with some 80% of his policy positions, but it will be fun to have him around. MOst politicians are so careful not to say anything that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as controversial that they are b-o-r-r-r-i-n-g.

Jerry Browns medical marijuana guidelines not bad

When I saw the first headlines regarding the guidelines Calif. Attorney General Jerry Brown issued this week on medical marijuana I was dismayed. The AP story emphasized the idea that a lot of dispensaries would be open to law enforcement raids under them, and that he had declared any profit-making entity likely illegal. Then I talked to the good folks at Americans for Safe Access, who were fairly pleased and actually read the guidelines in toto, and decided they're not so bad. The bit about profit-making dispensaries will probably be challenged in court on the grounds that the original law, 1996's Prop.215, didn't stipulate no profit, and laws passed by initiative can only be changed by a new vote of the people. Appellate courts have already invalidated possession limits on the same grounds, but Jerry's appealed that to the Calif. Supremes. I think he'll lose, but predicting how courts will decide is a fool's game.

Anyway, here's the Register's editorial. The rest of the guidelines take recent court decisions into account and set up fairly reasonable standards that most dispensaries are likely to meet. That might not keep the feds away, as Jerry said he wanted to do, but it's not a bad start.

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.