Please support AB 2743 to end state and local involvement in the federal government's war on the sick

AB 2743, Authored by Asm. Lori Saldana (D-San Diego), would make it the legislative policy of the state of California that state and local law enforcement will not assist the federal government in activities that undermine the state's medical marijuana laws.

It makes little sense to use our limited state law enforcement resources to attack medical marijuana patients and providers who are acting within state law and paying state taxes.

Law enforcement officers need clarity from the state government as to whether or not their duties are to enforce state or federal law in medical marijuana cases. AB 2743 provides the direction that is needed for our state's law enforcement officials and reaffirms the established court precedents.

• The federal Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) raids on California's legal medical marijuana providers forces countless patients to obtain their medicine in the criminal market rather than from locally regulated, tax-paying facilities.

• In addition to their cruelty to already suffering patients, the federal raids on medical marijuana facilities undermine our state's right to self-determination and have become the single most significant obstacle to effective local regulation of medical marijuana.

• DEA raids have cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tax revenue from legal medical marijuana facilities.

• Local law enforcement officers should not feel compelled to participate in federal actions that undermine their own state law, put patients in harm's way, cause revenue loss to the state, interfere with local regulations, and are contrary to the will of California voters — who overwhelmingly support our medical marijuana laws.

• Last year, the Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled, "It is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws." The State Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal, letting the Fourth District decision stand. AB 2743 simply reaffirms this ruling.

"I understand why they are offended. First you regulate us and then arrest us. It's contradictory and I am aware of that."
— Kern County sheriff, Donny Youngblood, responding to his department's involvement in federal raids on Nature's Medicinal, a Bakersfield-area medical marijuana collective that was operating legally under a Kern County ordinance.

Examples of local assistance with federal medical marijuana raids:

• On July 25, 2007 — the same day the Los Angeles City Council approved an interim ordinance regulating medical marijuana facilities — the DEA and LAPD raided 10 dispensing collectives in Los Angeles, confiscating medicine, arresting five, and closing many of the collectives. Contrary to the Los Angeles City Council's public condemnation of such raids, the LAPD used city and state resources to assist the DEA in their actions. Specifically, one LAPD Officer was caught on video wearing DEA regalia and actively participating in the raid. While the LAPD promised to investigate his role in the raid, LAPD Commander David R. Doan told the Los Angeles City Council that the LAPD will continue to participate in federal raids on local medical marijuana-dispensing collectives.

• After considering a letter he had received from Patients Choice that explained the legality of dispensing collectives under state law, San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe decided to call in the DEA to raid three dispensaries in the county. On August 29, 2007, the DEA, the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force, and the San Mateo Police Department raided the dispensing collectives in San Mateo, confiscating medicine and shutting them down. "We could have sat here and spent a great deal of taxpayer money in San Mateo County, prosecuting it and going through the appeals, or we could bring the case to the attention of the federal government," Wagstaffe said.

• On September 13, 2007, the DEA and Nevada County Sheriff's Department raided a residence near Big Oak Valley and arrested a patient-caregiver who was growing for five patients for cultivating what they alleged was over 100 plants. Nevada County Sheriff Keith Royal initiated the investigation and utilized federal DEA warrants because, since California's voter-approved medical marijuana law permits collective cultivation of marijuana for medical use, obtaining a conviction in state court would likely have been insurmountable.

• On December 12, 2006, and then again on July 6, 2006, the DEA, San Diego County Sheriff's Office, and San Diego Police Department raided 11 medical marijuana dispensing collectives in San Diego under federal and state search warrants. The rest of the city's dispensaries were told to shut down — thereby forcing most San Diego patients into the criminal market for their medicine. During the investigation, San Diego police officers went to doctors, feigned illnesses in order to get medical marijuana approvals, and also visited dispensaries posing as legitimate patients.

Note: These anecdotes were compiled by Americans for Safe Access and represent only a small fraction of the cases involving local assistance with federal raids.

 "It is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws."
— Unanimous Fourth District Court of Appeals ruling in City of Garden Grove v. Superior Court of Orange County; November, 2007