SECTION: CALIFORNIA; Metro; Metro Desk; Part B; Pg. 6

Suit Challenges CHP Confiscation of Medical Pot;
Even with doctors' OK, patients are cited. The patrol says state and federal
laws conflict.

BYLINE: Eric Bailey, Times Staff Writer

DATELINE:  SACRAMENTO

BODY:

Mary Jane Winters, a registered nurse, doesn't dispute that the California
Highway Patrol officer had a right to pull her over and write a ticket for
speeding. But what galls Winters is that he took her medicine.

In her case, that medicine is marijuana.

She has a legal recommendation from her doctor to use cannabis to numb the
pain and spasms in her back, damaged while trying to lift a 421-pound
patient a
decade ago. None of that mattered to the CHP officer who stopped her last
Thanksgiving as she zipped through Mendocino County. He confiscated her pot
and
cited Winters for possession of more than an ounce.

Within two months, the charges were dismissed, as authorities reasoned that
Winters had a legal right under Proposition 215 -- the state's 1996 medical
marijuana law -- to use the drug her doctor recommended.

But Winters, 53, isn't mollified. She and other pot patients who have run
afoul of the CHP are launching a counterattack.

Americans for Safe Access, a patient support group, plans to announce today
in Oakland a lawsuit against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the CHP and Atty.
Gen.
Bill Lockyer asking that the state stop confiscating medical marijuana from
patients.

Police confusion about medical marijuana is nothing new. Medpot activists
say
the CHP remains the worst offender, confiscating even the smallest amounts
of
pot and sometimes arresting patients even after they present documentation
from
a physician.

The CHP has "an obligation to uphold state laws. And medical marijuana is
legal in California," said Joseph Elford, an Americans for Safe Access
attorney.

CHP officials say the matter is hardly so clear-cut.

Tom Marshall, a CHP spokesman, said there remains a conflict between state
law and the federal government's prohibition against pot use for any
purpose.

But the biggest sticking point for the CHP, he said, is the absence of state
identification cards for medical marijuana patients. The cards were
authorized
by the Legislature in 2003, but state health officials balked at launching
the
ID program because of budgetary constraints.

"Until the day arrives that there's a card," Marshall said, "we're going to
continue to enforce the law as we always have."

Steph Sherer of Americans for Safe Access said that the ID cards are
voluntary and that patients can provide a doctor's written recommendation as
proof they're legal. The CHP, she said, "is fooling themselves."

Tiffany Simpson, 23, a college student from Richmond, has a doctor's
recommendation to use pot for chronic pain in her back and knee. A CHP
officer
smelled pot in her car after pulling Simpson over on Christmas morning for
what
he said was a registration problem.

The officer found that Simpson's car was properly registered. But he cited
her for less than an ounce of marijuana and lectured her on the conflict
between
state and federal law on medicinal uses.

"I just don't understand what's going on with the Highway Patrol," she said.
"They don't do this with diabetics."

Simpson will be one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, along with Tony
Bowles,
28, of San Francisco.

Bowles was two blocks from home last May when two CHP officers pulled him
over and confiscated 4 grams of marijuana. A caregiver for his mother,
Bowles
said he was toting the drug home for her use. He showed the officers an ID
card
issued by the San Francisco health department. They wouldn't accept it as
proof.

"They said they were following maximum enforcement of the law," he said. "I
thought Proposition 215 was the law."

San Francisco prosecutors dropped the case against Bowles within a few
weeks.

LOAD-DATE: February 15, 2005

NEWS ADVISORY ­ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, February 14, 2004
MEDIA CONTACT: Hilary McQuie (510) 333-8554

Press Conference Tuesday, February 15:
Medical Marijuana Group Lawsuit Against CHP, Governor
Patients Say CHP Defied State Law in Traffic Stops

OAKLAND ­ A medical marijuana rights group, Americans for Safe Access, is
filing a group lawsuit on behalf of seven legal medical marijuana patients
and caregivers against the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and Governor
Schwarzenegger for the CHP policy of confiscating marijuana despite valid
documentation of their legal patient status.



All the plaintiffs are qualified medical marijuana patients who possessed
very small amounts of marijuana, which they were legally entitled to possess
and transport under California law. All were stopped by the CHP for alleged
traffic offenses, and had their medicine confiscated by the police as an
added punishment.  "A number of patients were told by CHP officers that they
don't recognize Proposition 215," said Kris Hermes, ASA's legal director.
"CHP officers are sworn to uphold the laws of this state, not subvert them."
The suit argues that the CHP¹s policy of disregarding the Compassionate Use
Act not only violates California law, but both the federal and state
constitutions.



It has been more than eight years since the passage of the Compassionate Use
Act (CUA) in 1996, where California voters approved the use of marijuana for
medical purposes. Since then, the California legislature has enacted law (SB
420) clarifying the CUA and explicitly allowing for transportation of
marijuana by qualified patients and caregivers.



Local law enforcement in California has exhibited ongoing resistance to
enforcing state law, despite the enactment of both the CUA and SB 420. A
report issued last August by Americans for Safe Access stated that while
this inappropriate conduct by law enforcement occurs in the vast majority of
California¹s 58 counties, the worst offender is the California Highway
Patrol. The medical marijuana group is suing the CHP to change their
official policy stating that, ³[e]ven if a Section 11362.5 H&S claim is
alleged, all marijuana shall be confiscated and booked as evidence.² The
only state-required documentation of legal patient status is a copy of a
current doctor's recommendation, which the CHP refuses to accept as anything
but an 'alleged' claim.



One of the plaintiffs, Mary Jane Winters, a registered nurse who uses
marijuana to treat chronic pain stemming from three herniated discs in her
spine, was pulled over by the CHP on Thanksgiving Day, 2004 while on her way
to deliver flowers to a homeless shelter.  The officer seized her two ounces
of marijuana, despite being presented with a physician¹s recommendation to
use marijuana medicinally. "Confiscation from legal patients is a civil
rights violation," said Winters. "They had no reason to believe that I was
not in compliance with California law."



WHEN:            Tuesday, February 15, 2004, 10 am
WHERE:         Alameda County Administration Building plaza, 1221 Oak St.,
Oakland
WHO:              Medical marijuana patient plaintiffs and legal staff of
Americans for Safe Access
WHAT:            Press conference to announce filing of patient lawsuit
against CHP

           

       To see the complaint, go to

To read the CHP policy on medical marijuana, go to
http://www..safeaccessnow.org/downloads/CHP_Policy.pdf
<http://www.safeaccessnow.org/downloads/CHP_Policy.pdf>

###A national coalition of 12,000 patients, doctors and advocates, Americans
for Safe Access is the largest organization working solely on medical
marijuana. For more information, see www.SafeAccessNow.org

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