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PROPOSALS

 

A follow up report from the Medical Marijuana Working Group regarding the City's low law enforcement policy towards Medical Marijuana.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Medical Marijuana Working Group recommends that this committee adopt a policy, which allows for the possession of a three-month supply of medical marijuana for each patient who grows their marijuana indoors or possesses the same amount for each patient for whom they can establish legitimate caregiver status.

The Police Department has agreed to implement a process, which does not seize processed marijuana or uproot/destroy plants when a credible claim to medicinal use or caregiver status is made.

BACKGROUND

On February 10, 1998, the Public Safety Committee received a Status Report on City's Implementation of Medical Marijuana Low Priority Policy prepared and presented by the Oakland Police Department.  In the relevant part of the report it proposed:

The Police Services Agency implements the low-priority policy as follows:

  1. The Police Services Agency does not target medical Marijuana-related activities.  The Agency Investigates and becomes involved in marijuana-related activities (1) as a result of citizens complaints, (2) incident to law enforcement activities, or (3) due to public activity involving marijuana that provides probable cause for investigation.
  2. Persons who come into contact with law enforcement will not be cited or arrested and marijuana in their possession will not be seized if all of the following conditions are met.

        a.  The person establishes medicinal use or primary care giver status to the satisfaction of the officer who makes the initial contact; A Command Officer shall be summoned to the scene prior to any enforcement action.

        b.  The person possesses less than one ounce of marijuana in particle form or no more than two grown plants; and

        c.  The person is not taken into custody for violation of laws unrelated to marijuana activities.

  1. An individual may be cited and/or arrested and marijuana in his/her possession will be seized, submitted to the Police Services Agency's criminalistics' division and returned to the possessor only pursuant to court order if:

        a.  The person does not establish medicinal use or primary care giver status; or

        b.  The person possisses more than two grown plants or an ounce or more of marijuana in particle form; or

        c.  The person is taken into custody and marijuana is seized and turned into criminalistics' Division in accordance with standard police procedure.

    4.    Consistent with the low-priority policy, the agency does not pursue law enforcement activities with respect to the Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative's operations unless citizen complaints or other reports dictate such action.

    5.    Persons who do not establish personal medicinal in their possession will be seized.

Several questions were raised by members of the Committee, and members of the Medical Marijuana Work Group expressed concern about adopting the one ounce and two plant standards suggested by the District Attorney and the Attorney General, respectively, for triggering law enforcement action.  Those standards did not evidence consideration of any recommendation from the medical community concerning reasonable amounts necessary for legitimate medical use.  The Medical Marijuana Working Group also objected to uprooting/destroying marijuana plants in cases in which the possessor claimed to be a patient or a caregiver but was unable to provide satisfactory proof at the time of encountering an officer.  In addition they objected to a process which would force a legitimate patient or caregiver to obtain a court order to secure the return of their medicine.

This Committee directed the Medical Marijuana working group to address the above concerns and return to the Committee with appropriate recommendations.  Specifically, the Committee requested medical input concerning reasonable amounts necessary for legitimate medical use.

DISCUSSION

The Medical Marijuana Working Group met four times in preparation for this report.  The Group reached easy consensus that a three-month supply was a reasonable amount for a patient to possess.  The Group wrestled with eh difficulty of defining what would be a reasonable amount of marijuana for a three-month supply.  The difficulty in determining this amount comes from the interplay of a variety of factors.  The nature of the patient's illness bears strongly on the amount of marijuana they need to relieve symptoms.  Some illnesses will require daily medication.  Others may only require occasional medication.  The type of marijuana available to the patient is another factor.  Some types are stronger than others are.  Some can only be baked on other foods.  That requires more marijuana than the type that can be smoked.  Even within the same types of marijuana, there are qualitative differences in separate harvests.

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