AMERICAN MEDICAL MARIJUANA ASSOCIATION
1017 Portola Drive, San Francisco, CA 94127
http://www.americanmarijuana.org/
September 12, 2009
Bonnie M. Dumanis
San Diego District Attorney
330 W. Broadway, San Diego
CA 92101
619-531-4040
FAX: 619-237-1351
Dear District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis,
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about medical marijuana. However they are not entitled to their own facts. As someone who played a key role in the Prop. 215 campaign, I must correct several false and misleading statements issued by you recently.
Ms. Dumanis, we want to look up to our District Attorneys and believe what they tell us. When opinions are being passed off as facts on an official DA website, such actions are viewed as a direct threat to public health and safety by the patients, physicians, nurses, lawyers, and scientists who support The American Medical Marijuana Association (AMMA).
For example, you insist on misquoting Prop. 215, with respect to Caregivers. What the Compassionate Use Act actually says is health “OR” safety, not “AND” safety yet you continue to create a strawman argument, based upon this misrepresentation. Furthermore, you use this phony standard to raid and arrest collective members which is completely unreleated.
Another example you have repeatedly asserted, “The pro-medicinal argument is reserved for SERIOUSLY ILL patients.” Then, you criticized those who use it for anything less serious than Cancer or AIDS, telling the public, “This isn’t what the voters voted for.”
Actually, that is exactly what the voters were told would happen if they voted “YES” for Prop. 215. If you refer to the official Analysis of Proposition 215 by the Legislative Analyst, the voters were told, “No prescriptions or other record-keeping is required by the measure.”
In addition, the voters were reminded by the Legislative Analyst that this initiative also covered, “any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.”
(Source: http://vote96.sos.ca.gov/BP/215analysis.htm)
In the ballot Argument Against Prop. 215, James P. Fox, President, California District Attorneys Association solemnly warned voters that if Prop. 215 passed, it would “legalize marijuana”:
“This initiative allows unlimited quantities of marijuana to be grown anywhere … in backyards or near schoolyards without any regulation or restrictions. This is not responsible medicine. It is marijuana legalization.”
(Source: http://vote96.sos.ca.gov/BP/215noarg.htm)
The fact is that when the People of California wrote and passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, it was intended to fully exempt patients from criminal prosecution.
Attorney General Dan Lungren even said so when he wrote his official Title and Summary to Prop. 215 and told the voters in their 1996 Voter’s Handbook:
“Exempts patients and defined caregivers who possess or cultivate marijuana for medical treatment recommended by a physician from criminal laws which otherwise prohibit possession or cultivation of marijuana.”
(Source: http://vote96.sos.ca.gov/BP/215.htm)
Nowhere in the official Title and Summary or in the text of the Compassionate Use Act does it say anything about an affirmative defense or any limits or restrictions.
It was Lungren who fraudulently changed his official Attorney General’s interpretation after the election from, ”Exempts patients and defined caregivers” to his personal, “narrow interpretation” which told law enforcement they could go ahead and arrest anyone who had “too much for personal use.”
Lungren also immediately called a statewide “All-Zones Meeting” to discuss and coordinate how police could gut Proposition 215 and ignore the new law. The gist of his “narrow interpretation” was relayed to law enforcement officers throughout California by their professional associations and through official channels.
Lungren also met with and coordinated his attack on the CUA with federal officials. Finally, in the action plan he released on December 30, 1996, ONDCP “Drug Czar” Barry McCaffrey made Lungren’s policy explicit:
“State and local law enforcement officials will be encouraged to continue to execute state law to the fullest extent by having officers continue to make arrests and seizures under state law, leaving defendants to raise the medical-use provisions of the proposition only as a defense to state prosecution.”
The affirmative defense strategy allowed opponents of medical marijuana to achieve what they couldn’t on election day — a fraudulent interpretation that allowed LEOs to continue arresting and charging people as if Proposition 215 had never passed.
Regretably you have repeatedly and falsely stated you opinion that:“Federal law supersedes state law.” However, the fact is that the court has ruled against arguments that police are generally charged with enforcing “the law of the land,” including federal laws. Here is what the 4th District Court of Appeals had to say about this matter:
We appreciate these considerations and understand police officers at all levels of government have an interest in the interdiction of illegal drugs,” Bedsworth wrote. “But it must be remembered it is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws as such.”
By complying with the court order to return Kha’s pot, Bedsworth added, Garden Grove officers “will actually be facilitating a primary principle of federalism, which is to allow the states to innovate in areas bearing on the health and well-being of their citizens.”
“The upshot of Raich is that the federal government and its agencies have the authority to enforce the federal drug laws, even in a state like California that has sanctioned the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. However, we do not read Raich as extending beyond this particular point, into the realm of preemption. The Raich court merely examined the validity of the CSA under the Commerce Clause; it did not go further and examine the relationship between the CSA and the CUA…Raich “neither declared (the CUA) invalid on preemption or any other grounds nor gave any indication that California officials must assist in the enforcement of the CSA.”].) Consequently, the high court’s decision did not sound the death knell of the CUA in state court proceedings. (Cf. People v. Wright, supra, 40 Cal.4th at p. 89, fn. 5 [noting the parties in that case both agreed Raich is not implicated in deciding “the applicability of the CUA to state criminal charges”].)9
The fact is, “the structure and limitations of federalism . . . allow the States ‘“great latitude under their police powers to legislate as to the protection of the lives, limbs, health, comfort, and quiet of all persons.”’ [Citation.]” (Gonzales v. Oregon)
This decision was challenged by varous law enforcement organizations who brought the matter before the California Supreme Court which refused to hear the case. LEO’s then appealed to the US Supreme Court, which also refused to hear the case, upholding this California decision as the law of the land.
Statements that federal law supersedes state law, also places you, and every other state official who uses this bogus argument to attempt to nullify the will of the People of California in direct conflict with our California Constitution, the highest law in our state.
According to the California Constitution such actions are clearly prohibited. Under Article 3, Section 3.5 (c):
“An administrative agency, including an administrative agency created by the Constitution or an initiative statute, has no power: “To declare a statute unenforceable, or to refuse to enforce a statute on the basis that federal law or federal regulations prohibit the enforcement of such statute unless an appellate court has made a determination that the enforcement of such statute is prohibited by federal law or federal regulations.”
(Source: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_3)
The US Supreme Court has had three opportunities to declare the Compassionate Use Act unconstitutional yet they have not only refused to do so their legal decisions have clearly upheld that the People of California had every right to pass and enforce the CUA as a state law.
One more fact that everyone must understand about the Compassionate Use Act: The California Constitution also requires that any changes to a voter initiative must be submitted to the voters of the state and approved by them. Thus, no Board of Supervisors, nor Sheriff, nor District Attorney, nor San Diego District Attorney, nor Legislature, nor Attorney General, nor Governor has the legal right to change the state’s medical marijuana law. Only the voters can change or modify this law.
Sick, disabled and dying patients throughout San Diego county are still being raided by SWAT teams, arrested, jailed, humiliated, treated like criminals, bankrupted, children abducted by CPS and made even sicker, because of those who are still deliberately opposing this law thirteen years after the People of California voted to exempt patients and caregivers from criminal penalties and sanctions.
It is time to separate opinion from fact and uphold the Compassionate Use Act as it was written and passed by the People of California.
District Attorney Dumanis, the lives of sick, disabled and dying patients are in the hands of dedicated and otherwise well-intentioned public officials like yourself. Those who read your words on an official DA website need to hear directly from you that the information you gave them was wrong and is actually part of an carefully crafted plan hatched by Attorney General Dan Lungren, under color of law, to subvert a law that prosecutors don’t like.
We hope you will do the right thing and publish a retraction to your unfortunate and harmful statements.
Let freedom grow,
Steve Kubby
AMMA Executive Director
16 responses so far ↓
1 paulie // Sep 14, 2009 at 9:32 am
Kubby also sent this other note…
Note: The use of violence to obtain a political result is, by definition, Terrorism. When the San Diego DA and police raid sick people who believe they are following the law and, without any warning, engage in home invasions, smashing doors and entering with guns drawn, that is a deliberate use of violence to achieve with terror, what San Diego officials were unable to obtain by challenging medical marijuana laws in court. Here is a letter from an Iraqi War Vet, who has just spent the last seven years fighting the “War on Terrorism,” only to find a virulent form of Terrorism, right here, in his home town of San Diego.
–Steve Kubby
==========================================
Hello,
My name is Sebastian Maselli, I am a legal medical marijuana patient in California, as well as a founding member of The Healing Dragon collective. I am also an Iraq war veteran that has honorably and voluntarily served our country in the United States Marine Corps for over seven years. I know the meaning of sacrifice. I understand struggles. Most importantly I have witnessed first-hand how the war on terrorism has affected our military members. I have seen what happens to my brothers and sisters in the military medical system, Marines, sailors, and soldiers get pumped full of prescription medications. One med is for this, the other is for that, and the other seven meds help to counteract the side-effects of the first few drugs. This is not to say that they are not getting the care that they need, but there are much better and natural alternatives. Unfortunately they will not be able to try the alternatives until they have completed their time in the service.
There are many reasons why I am a medical marijuana patient, mainly post-traumatic stress disorder (or PTSD), chronic back pain and knee and joint pain. This is all documented in my military medical records. The Marine Corps definitely kept me in good physical shape, but at a cost (think about what we do and how we train). While in Iraq, I was exposed to countless dangers and situations no human being should have to encounter. Medical marijuana has helped tremendously with my PTSD and it makes my back and knee pain tolerable. Also, during my last three years back on active duty I worked at the combat casualty reporting section for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (IMEF) and at the Wounded Warrior Battalion (WWBn) at Camp Pendleton. I was dealing with combat related injuries and deaths at IMEF, as well as injured Marines and their families after they came home to the WWBn. The most important lesson I learned was COMPASSION.
Unfortunately, San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis seems to think that I am nothing more than a “drug dealer” only out to make a huge profit (taken from her Sept. 10th, 2009 press conference).
I was arrested on September 9th, 2009 in front of my wife and one year-old son during the medical marijuana raids. I will say that the officer who arrested me was courteous, I immediately made it clear to him that I would not be resisting and that I understand that he is just doing his job just like I had a job to do in the military. I was then taken to jail, and processed like a common thug. This is the thanks I get for serving my country and trying to help other patients like myself? We followed all of the guidelines set forth by the California Attorney General’s office, so it is inexplicable to me why we were arrested; WE DID NOTHING WRONG.
We are a non-profit collective; the members of our collective know that we are not rich, the D.A. claims that we were all in this for profit. Really? All non-profit organizations have to pay their employees or compensate their members in some form, and at the end of the day we all have bills to pay. Are we not entitled to make a living? Our mission statement clearly states this. So where does the money go? Besides the obvious expenses of starting and operating a storefront (rent, utilities, etc.) there were also internal improvements like: adding an air conditioner, insulated ceiling, floor, counter, website, etc… Additionally, in the six or seven weeks that we were open and operating, we donated money to seven different charities, including: Retired Sheriffs and Disabled Police Association, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department D.A.R.E. (to keep kids off drugs) campaign, San Diego Firefighters Association for their children’s fire safety program, Children’s Charity Fund, and more (some of the names may be slightly off because the police confiscated all of our records).
I would like to point out that while I was in hand-cuffs waiting to be processed at the jail, the Sherriff’s deputies were ecstatic that they were finally making some “over-time” pay. Also, there seemed to be no clue as to what they had to do, many of the officers kept asking each other: who is in charge here? Where do we take this stuff?” The response from the other officers was: “I don’t know, just toss it there for now.” Needless to say, they were incredibly unorganized and more concerned about wasting tax-payer dollars with their “overtime pay” as they sat and checked their Yahoo! Homepage (I could see the reflection from the window behind them).
What happened on 09/09/09 was a complete travesty and violation of my civil rights, not to mention the civil rights of the other people like myself who were unjustly arrested, as well as the patients who do not have access to their medicine. The fear tactics that were used (and continue) as well as the SWAT style raids that were conducted definitely triggered major PTSD buttons inside of me to the point where I felt like I was back in a warzone because I couldn’t believe that this was happening here in the USA. I do not drink alcohol (possibly on a special occasion) and I do not smoke cigarettes, but I had a drink that night after my wife told me she had exhausted all of our funds and maxed out our credit cards to bail me out of prison.
I can’t even imagine the suffering that this is causing our members as well as all of the medical marijuana patients in San Diego. We have members that have been diagnosed with terminal cancer, AIDS, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and countless other illnesses that are greatly alleviated with the use of medical cannabis. What are these patients supposed to do? “They can grow their own” says D.A. Bonnie Dumanis. This is real compassion (sarcasm). Is that what we should tell patients who need Tramadol, Vicodin, or Paxil? Make it yourselves! You would think that as the first woman to serve as San Diego County’s District Attorney she would understand our struggle because she must have had to cross many barriers herself.
Why is it so difficult for the leaders of this county to understand the laws of our state? Why do they turn a blind eye to the proven benefits of this medication? Why do they continue to terrorize our community instead of serving it like they swore to do when they were elected? I don’t know, but I intend to find out.
I really believe that this is the beginning of a new movement in San Diego County for the reason that local law-enforcement and the District Attorney refuse to follow state laws. I hope the local medical marijuana community has had enough and makes its voice heard loud and clear: “WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!”
Sebastian Maselli
sebastian.maselli@gmail.com
P.S. If you would like to help our cause, we ask that you please help spread the word about what is happening here. Write your representatives in congress, the Whitehouse, contact your local news agencies, and show up to support our movement. Furthermore, we understand that everyone has a busy life, so if you cannot support us with your time we would appreciate a small donation through PayPal to sdmaselli@bellsouth.net (even a single dollar) for our legal defense. We plan to fight this all the way because what they have done is not only wrong but ILLEGAL. We also plan to open up again once this is settled, so remember to keep the receipt from PayPal because we hope to thank those that supported us during these tough times. Thank you.
2 Obama Been Lyin' // Sep 14, 2009 at 9:33 am
Didn’t Obama promise to end the medical marijuana raids?
3 d.eris // Sep 14, 2009 at 10:59 am
“we want to look up to our District Attorneys and believe what they tell us”
Why would we want to do that?
4 paulie // Sep 14, 2009 at 11:50 am
It would be nice if we didn’t have a predatory, disingenuous law enfarcement system.
Also, I think Kubby is trying to appeal to the DA’s good nature, to the extent that it exists.
5 d.eris // Sep 14, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Lol: “law enFARCEment system.”
Was that a Freudian slip paulie? Or a conscious neo-logism? Either way, I’m gonna use that one in future.
Kubby’s whole point is that we can’t trust anything the DA says because the “law enFARCEment system,” especially with respect to drug laws, is based entirely on a nest of lies and distortion.
6 paulie // Sep 14, 2009 at 12:12 pm
It was conscious. I’ve been using it for years.
7 d.eris // Sep 14, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Ha. It’s a good one.
8 Michael H. Wilson // Sep 14, 2009 at 1:00 pm
US Clinical Studies Show Marijuana’s Medical Use, Journal of Opioid Management Article Says?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 14, 200910:31 AM CONTACT: Marijuana Policy ProjectBruce Mirken, MPP director of communications 415-585-6404 or202-215-4205 33 US Clinical Studies Show Marijuana’s Medical Use, Journal of OpioidManagement Article Says Contrary to Opponents’ Claims, Controlled Studies Have RepeatedlyDemonstrated Safety, Efficacy SEATTLE – September 14 – In a landmark article in the Journal of OpioidManagement, University of Washington researcher Sunil Aggarwal andcolleagues document 33 U.S. controlled clinical trials published from1971 to 2009 confirming that marijuana is a safe, effective medicine forspecific medical conditions. Under federal law, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug,defining it as having high potential for abuse, unsafe for use evenunder medical supervision, and lacking currently accepted medical usesin the U.S. “In fact,” Aggarwal and colleagues write, “nearly all of the33 published controlled clinical trials conducted in the United Stateshave shown significant and measurable benefits in subjects receiving thetreatment.” Additionally, the paper documents the growing acceptance ofthe therapeutic use of marijuana among organized medicine groups andestimates that “in 2008, approximately 7,000 American physicians havemade such authorizations for a total of approximately 400,000 patients.” Regarding abuse and safety issues, Aggarwal et al. write that withdrawalsymptoms — a classic symptom of drug dependence — are notably absentfrom the published trials, while “the vast majority of reported adverseevents were not serious … It is clear that as an analgesic, cannabisis extremely safe with minimal toxicity.” Unfortunately, the article continues, ignorance regarding marijuanaremains widespread in the medical community. “There remains a nearcomplete absence of education about cannabinoid medicine in any level ofmedical training,” Aggarwal writes. “This is arguably the most thorough review of the literature on medicalmarijuana since the Institute of Medicine report over a decade ago, witha trove of data that wasn’t available to the IOM,” said Rob Kampia,executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “It is simplyincomprehensible that a medicine that is so clearly safe and effectiveremains banned from medical use by federal law and the laws of 37states.” The article, “Medicinal Use of Cannabis in the United States: HistoricalPerspectives, Current Trends, and Future Directions,” is available athttp://tinyurl.com/m9oo44. A complete list of the 33 U.S. clinicaltrials is available from Sunil Aggarwal at sunila@uw.edu or206-375-3785. http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/09/14-2
9 jway // Sep 14, 2009 at 1:10 pm
So that explains why police officers were wearing ski masks and smashing down dispensary doors which would’ve happily been opened for them if they’d just asked.
10 Citizens For A Better Veterans Home // Sep 14, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Don Lake’s personal experience: do not be fooled, this official is the philosophical off spring of Hitler!
11 Conservative Christian // Sep 14, 2009 at 2:01 pm
The refusal to implement a fee and regulatory program for marijuana in the United States is irresponsible and a violation of the public trust.
The cartels would be poorer, our public lands cleaner, and our children safer if we implemented a Personal Use and Cultivation Permit: $100 per year for a dozen plants. Split the proceeds between the States and the Fed.
It’s time to put the cartels out of business.
It’s time to let ordinary Americans grow a little marijuana in their own back yards.
12 jennifer durant // Sep 18, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Why not call for the dismissal of Bonnie Dumass ?
13 San Diego Hypocrisy & Medical Marijuana Distribution on Trial - 420 Magazine // Nov 28, 2009 at 2:04 pm
[...] permalink “There has been reporting that there are eight legitimate medical-marijuana dispensaries in San Diego County,…There is no such thing right now.” San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis If only there was a way in which the good people of San Diego could voice their opinions and prevent people like Ms. Dumass from taking office… Found a cool link that has a letter written by Steve Kubby to this self-righteous Nazi. Steve Kubby: letter to San Diego District Attorney | Independent Political Report [...]
14 Mokkie // Nov 29, 2009 at 6:20 pm
If the Truth the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth wont due then what will?
“…This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it…”
– US President Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
15 libertariangirl // Nov 29, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Im sure this has already been said , but her name is Dum-Ass , Ha ha ha . I know it’s juvenile , but its hilarious. if i was in her courtroom , id mispronouce it as often as possible.
16 Don Lake, ....... // Nov 29, 2009 at 11:25 pm
jennifer durant // Sep 18, 2009:
Why not call for the dismissal of Bonnie Dumass ?
[a] maybe the entire county is locked up for the average incumbent ……..
[b] and the average VOTING citizen is slightly right of Attila the Hun ……….
[c] resistance is not futile, but it is an up hill struggle! The five county supervisors are all older than dirt and a ‘term limits’ petition is under way. [Wish us luck!]
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