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Volume 2 # 1. February 2004
Welcome to the Safe Access
Now Newsletter List
This is one in a series of newsletters to let you know
the status of the Safe Access Now medical marijuana garden
guidelines campaign. For more information on our project and
the science behind it, please visit our website (link
above).
These newsletters are issued
on an occasional basis. To
subscribe drop a
note with the subject "Subscribe SAN" to
chris@chrisconrad.com to be added to our list for future
issues. To
unsubscribe from
this newsletter send a message with the subject "Unsubscribe
SAN." Feel free to forward to interested people.
Contents:
- SB 420: Green light or
reverse?
- Who we
are
- SAN
Guideline basics
- Donate to
SAN
SB 420: Green Light or Reverse?
When Senator Vasconcellos and Assemblyman Leno introduced
SB 420, it was supposed to make life easier for patients by
allowing them to get a state approved ID card that would
protect them from arrest. Then, at the last minute, a very
low "floor" of tolerance was added to protect patients with
an ID card from arrest as long as they had no more than 8
ounces of processed marijuana (bud or conversion) and 6
mature plants. We argued against these numbers because they
are not practical for most medical marijuana patients on two
grounds:
1) Patients need time to grow marijuana or a location to
buy it, and this measure gives them neither
2) Counties and law enforcement agencies tend to
interpret a floor as a ceiling and, whereas over two years
we had much progress in getting counties to alow patients 2
to 3 pounds of cannabis plus gardens of up to 99 plants
within a limited canopy area of 100 square feet, this floor
could be used as the default in counties that had not
adopted guidelines, cited as a "reasonable" amount in court
(even though there is no scientific or rational basis for
the numbers), and counties with better guidelines might "cop
out" and go back to the default amounts in SB 420.
Well, the ID program is stalled by state bureaucrats and
unfortunately we seem to be getting proved right about the
guidelines. Shasta and Ventura counties have reduced their
already meager guidelines, a similar plan is being
steamrollered through the City of Oakland (once famous for
being a city of compassion), and those in Humboldt are hard
fought to be kept in place while the County BOS continues to
debate whether they will be retained or not.
SAN has met with Oanh Ho, Vasconcellos aide, who said
that the Senator is not inclined to increase the state
guidelines, although he is prepared to submit an amendment
that clearly states that "A qualified patient, a person with
an identification card, or any designated primary caregiver
may cultivate and possess any amount of marijuana consistent
with the medical needs of that qualified patient or person
with an identification card,"or words to that effect.
We are asking for two things:
1) At least changing the 6 mature or 12 immature plants
to 6 mature and 12 immature plants, or
2) Increase the amounts protected by HS 11362.77.
Oanh has asked us to document the rollbacks that occur
around the state to show the Senator what is happening in
order to encourage him to fix the numbers. We therefore need
all SAN reps to help with this process by sending any
information they have on this to Chris
Conrad so we can lobby for this change.
In the meantime, their office has offered to send letters
of support for local efforts to win better guidelines.
Contact Chris if you need such a letter.
Who we are
SAN is a non-partisan organization dedicated to the
proper implementation of uniform guidelines in all of
California's counties in compliance with H&S code
11362.5, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. It was
founded by Chris Conrad with Ralph Sherrow and has activists
in about half the counties of California. We are an
educational and activist organization only, and in no way
supply medicine. Our proposal has been to stop the arrests
as well as the prosecution of patients by creating a safe
harbor of presumed compliance with the law.
We work with all levels of government to achieve this
goal.
SAN guideline
basics
Since the federal government's IND program has
established more than six pounds per year of marijuana as a
safe and effective standard, with some patients receiving
even more, SAN proposes that patients should be allowed to
cultivate and consume that amount as a reasonable level of
compliance. However, since many patients use less than that
amount, we offer a compromise of allowing up to 3 pounds of
processed cannabis bud per patient per year, which typically
requires a canopy area of 100 square feet. Any amount of
plants could be grown to fill in this area without exceeding
the yield, but since a 5 year federal sentences is mandatory
for growing 100 or more plants, we advocate 99 plants as the
voluntary ceiling for patients. In addition, our proposals
allow a physician to write a note that will exempt patients
who need more from being bound by these figures. See our
website http://www.safeaccessnow.net/ for more details.
Donate to Safe Access
Now
Safe Access Now does not charge for the time and
materials we expend to advance the safe harbor proposal for
patients, but that does not mean it does not cost money to
run this campaign. If you can help with a donation of any
size, please send it to our financial coordinator, Chris
Conrad, with a note saying it is intended for Safe Access
Now work. If you plan to donate $100 or more and want a tax
deduction, we can arrange a fiscal sponsor. Cash is great,
but something of a mailing risk.
We do not have a bank account in our name, so please make
checks out to either Chris Conrad or Family Council on Drug
Awareness, and mail to:
Safe Access Now, PO Box 1716, El Cerrito CA 94530.
See
all our past SAN newsletters: Visit our archives online!
http://www.safeaccessnow.net/sannews/sannewsarchive.htm
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