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Medical Marijuana News Update
The Coalition
for Medical Marijuana includes:
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Court Throws Out County Suit Over Medical Marijuana LawA lawsuit filed by three counties challenging California's medical marijuana law was rejected. The North County Times reported on Dec. 7, 2006 ("Judge Tosses County's Medical Marijuana Challenge") that "Medical marijuana advocates declared victory and San Diego County officials mentioned the word "appeal" Wednesday when a Superior Court judge rejected -- for the second time -- the county's controversial challenge to overturn California's "Compassionate Use" act. Superior Court Judge William R. Nevitt, reaffirming the tentative ruling he issued Nov. 16, rejected the county's argument that California's voter-approved Compassionate Use act should be pre-empted by federal law." According to the Times, "San Diego County supervisors, in a move that angered local medical marijuana patients and national advocacy groups, voted to try to overturn the law in December 2005. Supervisors said the Compassionate Use act was 'bad law' and would promote drug abuse. But Judge Nevitt, in his final ruling Wednesday, said the county failed to prove that the state law was in legal conflict with the federal law. He also ruled the state law did not 'require' people to break the federal law, as the county's pre-emption argument claimed. Nevitt said the county's pre-emption argument failed because a corollary to the U.S. Constitution's 'Supremacy Clause' -- which says federal law should be 'supreme' over state laws -- says state laws could take precedence over federal laws in some cases." The Times noted that "John Sansone, the county's top lawyer, said Wednesday afternoon that supervisors would meet in closed session Tuesday to decide whether they want to appeal Nevitt's ruling. Bill Horn, the county board's chairman, did not return calls Wednesday. Sansone, meanwhile, said he would advise the supervisors that he believed an appeal could be successful. Medical marijuana advocacy groups, however, said Nevitt's ruling was clear. They called on the county to immediately obey California's law by issuing identification cards to valid medical marijuana users." Before their meeting county officials will hear from local residents who support the state's medical marijuana laws. The North County Times reported on Dec. 10, 2006 ("Patients Say They'll Appeal To County Over Medical Marijuana Law") that "The discussion is set to be held behind closed doors. But at least a couple of local medical marijuana users hope to get a chance Tuesday to try to talk county supervisors out of appealing last week's court decision to throw out the county's controversial bid to overturn California's medical marijuana law. 'I want to try to appeal to their humanity,' Vista resident, business owner, husband, father and spinal cord victim Craig McClain said Friday. 'Yes, definitely, I'll be there.' Rudy Reyes, a Cedar fire burn victim, said he also planned to come to Tuesday's meeting to speak. 'I'm going in next week to say, 'Stop it, we don't need you guys to continue with this, it's an abuse of our tax dollars,' ' Reyes said." The Times reported that "On Tuesday, supervisors will meet for the first time since Nevitt's ruling. They are scheduled to talk in closed session about where they go now on the medical marijuana issue, and whether they should appeal. Supervisors have talked little about the case since the lawsuit was filed last year. But they have hinted all along that they would probably appeal. Last week, board Chairman Bill Horn did not return calls after Nevitt's decision, and supervisors in general did not respond three weeks earlier when Nevitt issued a tentative ruling initially dismissing the county's suit. John Sansone, the county's top lawyer, said last week that he felt that Nevitt's ruling was extremely thorough. But he also said that county lawyers still believed in their legal argument, and felt that an appeal could be successful. Sansone said that was what he would advise county board members Tuesday in closed session, but that it was up to them to decide whether to continue the challenge."
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