Last week, I posted the results of the MPP-commissioned poll showing that despite outrageous claims being made by local officials, there is wide support for medical marijuana among Los Angeles County voters. A new poll now shows that support for medical marijuana access isn’t confined to Los Angeles.

A poll released Wednesday in San Diego found super-majority support for medical marijuana in that city. The poll — commissioned by addiction recovery Web site keepcomingback.com — found 77% agreement that “officials must make sure that San Diego’s medical marijuana patients have convenient access to their medicine in the city.” 70% support regulating the city’s medical marijuana collectives in some way, while only 9.5% support banning them (3% said they didn’t need any regulations). The poll also collected other interesting information about how San Diegans view medical marijuana sales. Read more about it here.

This poll should send a firm message to San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who just last month ordered a series of shocking raids on local medical marijuana patients and suppliers.

Despite the success experienced by dozens of California cities and counties regulating — and in one case, even taxing — medical marijuana sales, some municipalities have seen fit to shutter all open access to patients. In San Diego, where local voters approved the state’s medical marijuana initiative 13 years ago, the county district attorney  continues to assert that it’s illegal to dispense medical marijuana to patients whose physicians have approved its use. Despite repeated losses in court and overwhelming opposition to medical marijuana raids, District Attorney Dumanis has vowed to continue her pogrom against San Diego’s sick.

On the other end of the state, the small town of Red Bluff may be taking it upon itself to re-write California’s voter-approved medical marijuana law altogether. The city’s planning commission voted 3-2 on Tuesday to support of an ordinance which would not only ban storefront medical marijuana dispensing collectives but also prohibit all medical marijuana cultivation. Apparently, the news that California laws specifically allow cultivation by patients and their caregivers hasn’t reached Red Bluff in all these years. Nor have the loads of case law supporting these rights been taken into account when the majority of commission cast its vote to thwart state law.

The Red Bluff City Council should reject this offensive proposal but if they don’t, I’m confident that it will be overturned in court. Further, public officials like D.A. Dumanis and the three Red Bluff planning commissioners who openly defy the will of their state’s voters and its legislature should find another line of work.

Remember that gut-wrenching footage of the wheelchair-bound medical marijuana patient being pulled out of his chair and into the back of a squad car? The victim of this brutality was Rev. Paul Cody, operator of the Hillcrest Compassion Care medical marijuana collective in San Diego.

Paul has told the San Diego City Beat that he’s planning on filing a legal complaint for his treatment during the raid on Hillcrest. Paul is paralyzed from the waist down due to a motorcycle accident, and he repeatedly told the police officers that his condition required that he receive special treatment but sadly, the thugs carried on as if terrorizing a man in a wheelchair was just another day at the office. [Read more →]

According to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office — the agency that led yesterday’s multi-jurisdictional raids on local medical marijuana providers — warrants were served at 14 dispensing collectives and six associated residences. So far, 23 people have been arrested in connection with the raided facilities.

The D.A.’s press release attempts to justify the actions using an extremely narrow interpretation of state law relating to the role of a “primary caregiver.” It does not address whether or not the facilities in question were operating as “collectives” – a more common state-legal model for dispensing medical marijuana.

One thing that’s clear about this case is that San Diego would have been better served if its leaders had moved to properly regulate medical marijuana facilities rather than resisting any effort to do so before resorting to brute force to shutter legal access to local patients.

If you’ve had any doubt that these raids are being carried out by heartless thugs, just look to the image below from video captured by San Diego’s KFMB News showing an officer manhandling a wheelchair-bound patient into the back of a patrol car. Remind me again, how is this serving the interest of public safety?

Several San Diego-area medical marijuana collectives were raided today in a county-wide sweep apparently coordinated by the district attorney’s office. It’s unclear at this time whether or not any arrests have been made or exactly what — if any — state law violations are being alleged in these cases.

Given San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ dismal record of circumventing California’s medical marijuana laws and prosecuting patients, this recent action is unfortunately not very surprising. MPP is continuing to keep a close watch on the situation in San Diego; we’ll provide an update if more relevant information becomes available.

I’ve recently been corresponding with a medical marijuana patient and Navy veteran, Eugene Davidovich, who was recently arrested in a particularly slimy undercover sting operation. Eugene, a member of a San Diego medical marijuana collective, was contacted by an undercover cop posing as a registered, licensed medical marijuana patient who asked for his help obtaining his medicine.

You can probably guess the rest, but here’s a link to a good comprehensive story on his arrest.

Prosecutors argue that Eugene violated the law in providing medical marijuana to the undercover cop – even though the cop presented him with documentation verifying his status as a licensed medical marijuana patient. They even insinuate that Eugene’s motive was profit and not compassion.

It appears that what’s really happening is that prosecutors are taking advantage of vagaries in California’s medical marijuana law to persecute patients and caregivers who are doing their best to take care of themselves and stay within the law.

Here’s how Eugene put it:

Every attempt made to date by collectives and coops to follow the law in San Diego has resulted in prosecutions or collectives having to operate so deeply underground and under such intense daily fear and pressure, that the potential public benefit they could be bringing to the community and to patients is stifled by this environment of fear.

Eugene has a fight on his hands now. Please visit his Web site and help him out if you can.

California’s medical marijuana laws just received their latest legal vindication today – this time at the nation’s highest court. The U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will not be hearing a case lodged by the counties of San Diego and San Bernardino aimed at gutting California’s medical marijuana law. The two counties claimed that the federal law banning all marijuana trumped the state’s medical marijuana law.

The challenge was initially filed in 2006 at the San Diego County superior court after the counties had refused to implement the state-mandated medical marijuana identification card program. The superior court judge sided with patients and state law and strongly denied the counties’ claim. Last year, a state appeals court also ruled against the counties, and the state Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal.

The protracted legal battle has been a popular excuse among California officials trying to shirk their legal obligation to uphold the state’s medical marijuana laws. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided against hearing the case, officials in San Diego, San Bernardino, and seven other counties not following the law have nowhere to go but to obey the will of the voters who overwhelmingly support medical marijuana laws.

Beyond California, the message should now be clear that hiding behind federal law is no longer a legitimate position to take when considering state-level medical marijuana laws.

Unfazed by three consecutive legal defeats, the California counties of San Bernardino and San Diego last week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their legal challenge to the state’s 12-year-old medical marijuana law. The 47-page petition – drafted on the public’s dime – is a last ditch effort by the two embattled counties to continue their policy of arresting medical marijuana patients even when the patients are in full compliance with state law.

Their reasoning? Well, all marijuana is illegal under federal law and states do not have the authority to set their own marijuana policies – according to these two rogue counties anyway. Never mind the fact that not a single judge has sided with the counties and that the U.S. Supreme Court has recently denied review of another California ruling which held that local police should enforce state – not federal – law.

This ongoing lawsuit is clearly unpopular with California voters, who overwhelmingly support medical marijuana access. Indeed, scores of citizens have pled with both county boards of supervisors urging them to drop the challenge over the years, and 78% of San Diego voters thought the lawsuit was a waste of money before it was even filed. But these local politicians have apparently determined that fighting this uphill battle is a wise use of public funds, regardless of California’s unprecedented budget crisis.

It does look like the San Bernardino supervisors might be becoming wary of defending their legal challenge, as it appears they violated California’s open meetings law in order to avoid explaining themselves to the public.

San Bernardino’s supervisors are no strangers to controversy. In fact, former supervisor and outspoken opponent of medical marijuana Bill Postmus is currently facing charges for methamphetamine possession.

Oh, the irony!