SafeAccess; Election Results and Appellate Decision

FOUR BALLOT INITIATIVES FAIL TO SECURE THE RIGHTS OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES TO EXIST IN FOUR SAN DIEGO CITIES WHILE A LANDMARK CA. APPELLATE COURT DECISION DEFINES DISPENSARIES AS LEGAL

By: Terrie Best  - San Diego Americans for Safe AccessSan Diego CA - Hidden in the clouds of vapor in some reporter’s desk is a story whose magnitude was almost missed in the hubbub of the 2012 presidential election. On October 24th, 2012, the Fourth District Court of Appeals in San Diego overturned a medical marijuana dispensary operator’s guilty verdict, ruling that storefront dispensaries are legal under certain circumstances. The published decision created case law with clear direction on those circumstances, thereby defining the legality of store front medical marijuana dispensaries.

The People v Jovan Jackson appellate decision emphatically rejected the idea that medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal; it also provided elements for a defense to dispensary operators who are often victimized by law enforcement unwilling to investigate whether the operators they target abided state medical marijuana law.

The San Diego District Attorney (DA) and failed mayoral candidate, Bonnie Dumanis’ modus operandi has been to charge all dispensary operators with crimes, making no attempt to apply the state’s medical marijuana laws in her investigations. She relies on her own interpretation of the law (interpretations that have been squarely rejected by appellate courts throughout the state), questionable tactics designed to keep evidence from jurors’ eyes, and continues to prosecute case after case, at great public expense.
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