California

California, is a state spanning the southern half of the west coast of the contiguous United States. With a population of 36 million and an area of 158,402 square miles (410,000 km2), California is the largest U.S. state in population and the third largest in area.

California's economy is larger than all but the top 5 national economies in the world, $1.55 trillion (as of 2004), and is responsible for 13% of the United States' 13 trillion dollar gross domestic product (GDP). The state's major predominant industries include agriculture, entertainment, light manufacturing, and tourism.

California Patients Sue to Get Seized Marijuana Returned

8/20/04

In a mass legal action Tuesday, 38 California medical marijuana patients filed simultaneous lawsuits demanding that state law enforcement entities return almost $1 million worth of pot seized by police in recent years. California voters approved the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1996, but recalcitrant law enforcement organizations continue to seize marijuana from patients.

In all 38 cases, the plaintiffs had their medicine seized but were never charged with a crime or had the charges dropped. But they have been unable to get police to return their property -- the marijuana. Now they are going to court in an effort to get their property back, or at least its cash value, and to try to shock California police into actually upholding and obeying the law. Under California law, persons whose property was unlawfully seized may seek its return through a court order. If the property has been lost, damaged, or destroyed, plaintiffs are entitled to receive compensation. Each case must be filed separately, as was done Tuesday across the state.

According to a report issued this week by Americans for Safe Access (http://www.safeaccessnow.org), the group that coordinated the mass filing, illegal seizures of medical marijuana have occurred in more than half of the state's counties. The California Highway Patrol has also illegally seized marijuana from patients, the report found. Additionally, ASA found that eight years after the passage of Proposition 215, the state's Compassionate Use Act, most California law enforcement agencies have no procedures in place to determine who is a legal medical marijuana user.

In the report, which examined only the last three months, ASA found more than 100 cases of police violating patients' rights and seizing their medicine. ASA executive director Steph Sherer blamed the problem on a "culture of resistance" within law enforcement. "There is more support for medical marijuana in California than ever before," said Sherer in a Tuesday conference call. "But when we look at the implementation of Prop. 215, it is surprising that we see such a culture of resistance to it among law enforcement."

Lisa Swartz is one of the patients who filed suit Tuesday. During the conference call, she told of being raided at gunpoint in 1999. "They came with a narc SWAT team, pointing semi-automatic weapons at my grandkids' heads," she said before breaking into tears. "It was a terrible experience and totally changed my view of everything. I used to believe the police were there to protect and defend us. It is just so bizarre that they do this to people," said Swartz. "Even if we get our property back, this still takes a terrible toll on our families."

Swartz spent 18 months and $50,000 defending herself before authorities dropped the charges. "They never apologized and they never gave me my medicine back," she said, explaining why she filed suit.

The law enforcement "culture of resistance" to implementing the state's medical marijuana law is centered in the California Narcotics Officers Association, whose 7,000 members make a living enforcing the drug laws. The association, which is the largest law enforcement training organization in the state, says flatly on its web site that "marijuana is not a medicine" and that a well-financed drug legalization lobby has duped the voters of California.