Marijuana Law in California and Texas (El Sol y La Luna)

Get the Straight Dope!

In Texas, marijuana is still treated like alcohol during prohibition and the cops treat you like Al Capone-even if you have minor possession charges. In Texas, acceptance of marijuana use and medicinal marijuana benefits have yet to be socially and politically embraced. Without having the benefit of a ballot initiative like California, the only changes that are going to take place in Texas are going to have to be through the legislature. But for now, if you have been busted in Texas, get the straight dope! call Daucie Shefman for the best legal defense and the promise to take your case all the way to trial. You deserve your freedom and we will fight for it.

Every major government study conducted over the past 50 years has reached the conclusion that marijuana should be decriminalized. The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse had 13 members, hand picked by President Richard Nixon to affirm his belief that marijuana is a menace, came to the opposite conclusion and determined that legalization was the only policy that made sense. This study, conducted in 1972, was reaffirmed by the National Academy of Sciences in 1982 and is as valid today as it was then.

Here are some examples of the conclusions reached by both The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse and the National Academy of Sciences: "No valid stereotype of a marijuana user or non-user can be drawn." "The most notable statement that can be made about the vast majority of marijuana users - experimenters and intermittent users- is that they are essentially indistinguishable from their non-marijuana using peers by any fundamental criterion other than their marijuana use." "Most users, young and old, demonstrate and average or above average degree of social functioning, academic achievement, and job performance." "Neither the marijuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety." "Marijuana is much less dangerous than alcohol." "Government commissions have repeatedly observed that the risk of damage to the user from a prison sentence is much greater than any risk from the drug itself." "Marijuana laws constitute an enormous drain on the criminal justice system."

A group of more than 500 distinguished economists - led by the late Nobel Prize winner Dr. Milton Friedman - sent an open letter to President Bush and other public figures calling for "an open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition." You can see the letter at http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/endorsers.html

Harvard's Dr. George Lundbeg, editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association from 1982 through 1999, wrote a Medscape editorial in August 2005 stating in part: "For many decades, marijuana has been the American poster child for how not to deal with troubling psychoactive substances. Although far from harmless by toxicological or pathological criteria, marijuana is much less dangerous than many other substances in less restrictive schedules, like morphine and cocaine, not mention unscheduled legal mass killers tobacco and alcohol." "Kids quickly see through lies. Many kids may discount the proper scare tactics about really dangerous drugs, like heroin and PCP, because the dangers of marijuana have been overstated." Citing the New England Journal of Medicine, Lundberg stated "[o]f course, marijuana does have proven medical usefulness for some conditions…"

Marijuana, Drugs, and Drug Trafficking Attorney:
We have been involved in the medical marijuana movement since 2001. As civil legal counsel for the largest medical marijuana dispensary in California, the largest edibles manufacturer, and medical cannabis clinics, we have fine tuned knowledge of each statute, each case, and each local ordinance relating to medical marijuana. We have been part of working groups responsible for drafting ordinances and instrumental in assuring safe access to patients in Oakland, San Francisco, San Leandro, Unincorporated Areas of Alameda County, Bakersfield, Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Ukiah, Modesto, Mendocino and wherever there are dispensaries in the State of California.

Since the Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Raich (2005) 545 U.S. 1, the federal government has been exercising its power through the Drug Enforcement Agency to shut down dispensaries, and prosecute dispensary operators, employees, and patients under the supremacy clause that allows federal anti-drug laws to trump California and other states reformed marijuana laws. Medical Marijuana advocates have been pushing for States Rights to prevail over federal anti-drug laws. That fight continues today. With more dispensaries than ever and a nations worth of patients whom, by their doctor, have been recommended the use of cannabis as an agent for healing, the day for States Rights to prevail seems to be fast on the way. If you are a patient and have been arrested or charged with possession, transporting, dealing, or other related charges, contact our office so we can start on your defense right away. Our goal is to take every case to trial and to not bleed the wallets of medical marijuana patients. For better representation, affordable fees, and attorneys who will advocate for your rights and not hesitate to take your case to trial, call us today: (415) 357-3681 or toll free (877) 366-7677.

If you are arrested for possession or other drug related charges in Texas or another state on trafficking charges, don't delay in getting legal counsel who can help you overcome the charges against you and the harsh sentencing guidelines promulgated by our federal government. Call us in Austin: (512)386-8117 Houston: 713-357-9597 or anywhere in the nation: (877)366-7677.

SB 420
On October 12, 2003, SB 420 was signed by then Governor Gray Davis and became law. Proposition 215 could not be amended; however, it needed clarification. SB 420 in keeping with the intent of Proposition 215 and the will of the people -the protection of patients rights- deals with more specific details that were left out of Proposition 215. While SB 420 was cutting edge it was also controversial, rightfully so. Limits were placed on patients rights to possess their medicine. On May 22, 2008, the Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, Third Division, held in People v. Kelly, In re Patrick K. Kelly on Habeas Corpus, that limits on patients possessory rights to their medicine as was promolgated by SB 420 was unconstitutional pursuant to California Constitution, article VI, section 21. Embedded in Proposition 215/The Compassionate Use Act was a limited ability to amend the provisions of the Act and only by voter approval. Thus the provisions that were later codified following SB 420 into California Health and Safety Code Section 11362.5 et. seq, were determined to be unconstitutional. The Kelly case was remanded back to the lower court.

Health and Safety Code Section 11362.5