Op-ed: Medical pot policy needs change
Not everyone in San Bernardino was saddened by the news of Sheriff Gary
Penrod's retirement. In particular, suffering patients who rely on medical
marijuana are relieved to see Penrod step down.
Although California law has allowed patients to use marijuana in accordance
with their doctors' recommendation for more than 12 years, Penrod has
consistently instructed deputies to ignore that law.
Penrod's justification was that his department couldn't follow the state's
voter-approved medical marijuana law because of an obligation to enforce
federal law, which prohibits all marijuana use.
This might sound reasonable to someone who skipped his or her high school
civics class - but to the rest of us it's completely absurd.
In December, the United States Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal
to a lower court ruling affirming that when it comes to California's medical
marijuana law, "it is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal
drug laws ."
Sheriff Penrod may have liked to hang his hat on federal law, but in
practice his deputies generally cite patients with state-level marijuana
charges - not federal drug crimes. And, since these cases are tried in state
courts bound to recognize the medical marijuana laws, the charges are almost
always eventually dismissed.
Crestline medical marijuana patient Scott Bledsoe recently filed a lawsuit
against the county for its violation of state law. On the very day the suit
was filed, a spokesperson for Sheriff Penrod brazenly told the press that
deputies are instructed to arrest anyone in possession of marijuana -
regardless of their status under state law.
Besides footing the bill for civil litigation, taxpayers are also paying to
have sheriff's deputies arrest seriously ill patients just to have their
cases tossed out once a court finds that they weren't breaking the law in
the first place.
Does this sound like a responsible policy for a sheriff to follow while the
county's budget is strained and its jails overcrowded? Sheriff Gary Penrod
thought so. But it's time for a change.
Incoming Sheriff Rod Hoops should end this wasteful, cruel and illegal
policy and instead side with the state's more mainstream law-enforcement
leaders who understand the senselessness in knowingly arresting law-abiding
citizens.
At Tuesday's Board of Supervisors hearing, it was made clear that the budget
and jail overcrowding would be Hoops' biggest challenges.
In the words of the soon-to-be sheriff himself, "During these lean economic
times, we have to be even more diligent with every dollar we are entrusted
with."
Let's hope Sheriff Hoops lives up to these words and stops wasting precious
public safety resources arresting law-abiding medical marijuana patients.
