Thursday, April 15, 2010

Why doesn’t the DA’s office have a Prop 215 advocacy unit instead??

My thoughts after getting a tad bit more informed on the medical marijuana raids and my thoughts on what I think might be constructive step (and I am still reading up):
(1) It is a remarkable waste of resources when we don’t have money to fund our special units targeting violent crime in part because we spend money going after medical marijuana facilities and their customers. Pursuing medical marijuana patients and the co-ops that responsibly dispense the prescribed drug is poor budget management;
(2) The push to have better conviction rates may be a motive --if that is the only reason for targeting marijuana using patients, there is something very wrong--the DA's office has had Prop 215 on the books since 1996 and Ramo's steps seem fixated on interfering with the rights created under the law;
(3) The push to show to the conservative base which does vote in these mid-year elections (while some med marijuana advocates don’t) that Ramos is tough-on-crime may be a factor; real change happens at the ballot box and politicizing prosecutorial policy is part of the reason Ramos should go;
(4) Oh yeah--the entire notion of ignoring State Law that creates a patient's right to use medically prescribed marijuana (which through Prop215 is a state constitutional right) to create a justification to hold in custody a person under a conflicting local law or policy, is offensive to the rule of law, not in furtherance of it.

My thoughts—why doesn’t the DA’s office have a Prop 215 advocacy unit (and or a citizen’s advisory counsel) looking into ways to educate the public on the law and protect patient rights against efforts to chill the exercise of State Constitutional rights??

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