"How can we account for what exactly is non medication depression treatment san carlos perhaps just about the most dramatic legal disparities in medical cannabis to date? The issue of non-profit ""sale"" of medical cannabis to qualified patients via collectives and cooperatives. There's nothing else similar to this dispute. What do the pros say about this anyway?

Steve Cooley, The Los Angeles District Attorney, disagrees with Jerry Brown, the California State Attorney General.

How could two prominent state-employed attorneys arrived at wholly different conclusions around the answer? First the Los Angeles District Attorney claims ""all sales are illegal"". The California State Attorney General was sure enough to write in the guidelines that ""storefront collectives might be legal under state law"". How could this be? After all, each attorney is looking in the same task, right?

So precisely what is the answer? What does what the law states say?

COMPASSIONATE-USE ACT 1996

Proposition 215 which was approved by way of a most of Californians in 1996 also it became called the Compassionate-Use Act. The statute itself will not say anything about ""sales"" nonetheless it does speak about ""possession"", ""cultivating"", obtaining medical cannabis, about affordability and ""distribution"".

It does say that qualified patients and their primary caregivers will never be victim to criminal issues:

""(B) To ensure that patients as well as their primary caregivers who obtain and employ marijuana for medical purposes upon counsel of an physician aren't susceptible to criminal prosecution or sanction.""

And it also pushes governments to assist ensure ""safe and affordable access"" to medical cannabis for ""all qualified patients"".

""(C) To encourage the federal and state governments to implement an agenda for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to everyone patients in medical necessity of marijuana.""

The Los Angeles District Attorney, Steve Cooley, had State and Federal law enforcement officials agents raid a medical cannabis collective and arrest a minimum of 3 people, the week before Christmas. He insists ""all sales are illegal"". This seems to be from the letter and spirit of regulations, not the mention the spirit from the season.

Also if all ""sales"" are illegal, why does the Compassionate-Use Act say ""affordable""? If the patients are financially responsible for the cannabis, how does Cooley expect the currency to get exchanged? What's wrong with incremental reimbursements?

MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM OF 2004

The Medical Marijuana Program (MMP) got into law in 2004 from the legislative approval of Senate Bill 420. It was the state's attempt ""to implement an agenda for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all or any patients in medical demand for marijuana,"" as the Compassionate-Use Act of 1996 (Prop 215) encourages the State and Federal government to perform.

The MMP improves usage of medical cannabis for qualified patients by approving collectives and cooperatives.

""(3) Enhance the access of patients and caregivers to medicinal marijuana through collective, cooperative cultivation projects.""

What Steve Cooley doesn't manage to understand is non-profit storefront Medical Cannabis Dispensing Collectives/Cooperatives would be the distribution element of ""cultivation projects"". Just like a collective cultivation farm wouldn't have customers visit the farm to have their tomatoes, they'd have to get their collective tomatoes at the farmer's market or distribution location-- that's how medical cannabis collective cultivations occur. Grown in one position for safety along with other reasons, then distributed at another location.

The MMP procedes to discuss all of the criminal statutes that qualified patients and primary caregivers are exempt from. In section 11362.765, it says: ""shall not subject, on that sole basis, to criminal liability under Section 11357, 11358, 11359, 11360, 11366, 11366.5, or 11570.""

Let's look at all these one by one:

11357: [possession],

11358: [cultivation],

11359: [possession for sale],

11360: [""transports, imports into this state, sells, furnishes, administers, or gives away""- or purports to or attempts to do any of those],

11366: [Every individual that opens or maintains any where for your intent behind unlawfully selling, offering, or using any controlled substance]

11366.5 [Managing a place for manufacture, storage and/or the distribution of your controlled substance]

11570 [Every building or place used for that function of unlawfully selling, serving, storing, keeping, manufacturing, or giving out any controlled substance, precursor, or analog specified by this division, each building or place wherein or where those acts occur, can be a nuisance which will probably be enjoined, abated, and prevented, as well as for which damages might be recovered, whether it is often a public or private nuisance.]

The Health and Safety Code section 11360 specifically says ""sells"". Not only that, it also says: ""gives away"" and ""furnishes"". How come the LA District Attorney's office says ""all sales are illegal"" and non-profit storefront medical cannabis dispensing collectives/cooperatives are banned?

In that same bill,

""11362.775. Qualified patients, persons with valid identification cards, and also the designated primary caregivers of qualified patients and persons with identification cards, who associate inside the State of California in order collectively or cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes, shall not solely around the basis of that fact be at the mercy of state criminal sanctions under Section 11357, 11358, 11359, 11360, 11366, 11366.5, or 11570.""

Again, it says that patients can collectively cultivate cannabis and distribute it amongst themselves for non-profit. Again, the distribution of medical cannabis is separate from the cultivation the same as the manufacturing of my vicodin is found outside of my pharmacy.

The Medical Marijuana Act also calls on the State Attorney General to deliver guidelines associated with medical cannabis:

""The bill would require the Attorney General to produce and adopt guidelines to be sure the security and non-diversion of marijuana grown for medical use, as specified.""

And that what exactly State Attorney General, Jerry Brown did within the late summer of 2008.

GUIDELINES FOR THE SECURITY AND NON-DIVERSION OF MARIJUANA GROWN FOR MEDICAL USE August 2008

To fulfill his mandate, the State Attorney General release the following tips to assist law enforcements do their jobs as outlined by State law and to help you patients understand those laws.

The guidelines state non-profit storefront Medical Cannabis Dispensing Collectives and Cooperatives may be legal under state regulations when they followed the principles along with the above laws.

""It could be the opinion with this Office which a properly organized and operated collective or cooperative that dispenses medical cannabis through a storefront may be lawful under California law""

The State Attorney General confirms what the law says. The Attorney General could be the highest-ranking legal employee from the State of California. His office also answered the problems raised in Los Angeles by City Attorney's office.

According towards the New York Times on October 17: Christine Gasparac, a spokeswoman for State Attorney General Jerry Brown, declared that after Mr. Trutanich's comments in Los Angeles, law enforcement officials officials and advocates from across the state had called seeking clarity on medical cannabis laws.

Mr. Brown has issued guidelines that offer nonprofit sales of medicinal marijuana, she said. But, she added, with laws being interpreted differently, ""the final answer will eventually come from the courts.""

So what do the courts say?

PEOPLE v. MENTCH

The District Attorney's office would have you believe the Mentch decision outlaws non-profit storefront Medical Cannabis Dispensing Collectives/Cooperatives and makes ""all sales illegal"" but that decision has to perform while using definition of ""primary caregiver"" not sales.

Mentch had 82 marijuana plants growing in his home anf the husband sold the medicine to five individuals who found his home with all the primary intent behind buying cannabis. The tastes the plants in Mentch's home belonged to him while he testified. Their operations has not been a collective or perhaps a cooperative nor a storefront. Mentch owned Hemporium, a for-profit care giving and consultancy business, not just a non-profit collective or even a cooperative.

Based off the evidence the courts figured Mentch's operation was primarily a for-profit commercial venture and the man wasn't a primary caregiver for those he supplied medical cannabis to from his home business. I've written relating to this detailed here.

So there you might have exactly what the courts say, what the State Attorney says, and what the laws say; all confirm non-profit storefront dispensing of medical cannabis could be legal under State law.

Now the Los Angeles District Attorney must obey legislation along with the will with the people preventing wasting time and resources to hurt medical cannabis patients especially just before Christmas. Especially when you'll find over 7,000 untested rape kits that the District Attorney statements to not have access to the resources to take care of.

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