[ OUR OPINION ]
Feds should back off
pursuit of pot patientsFEDERAL prosecution of offenses related to the use of marijuana for medical purposes has resulted in nothing but scorn from judges. Federal law makes distribution or possession of marijuana illegal, even in Hawaii and eight other states that have legalized cannabis for medical use. The experience in prosecution of such cases in California demonstrates that strict enforcement of the law against Hawaii patients would be disruptive.
THE ISSUE
Three Californians have been sentenced to probation for distributing marijuana to patients who used it as medicine.
Ed Kubo, the U.S. attorney for Hawaii, says the Justice Department needs to analyze recent court decisions before deciding whether to continue trying to prosecute patients using marijuana. Any review of recent cases should cause them to let Hawaii's medical marijuana program continue.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled two years ago that state law legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes cannot be used as a defense against federal laws prohibiting any use or distribution of marijuana.
U.S. District Judge Howard Matz of Los Angeles this week placed on probation three men who pleaded guilty to distributing medical marijuana to patients suffering from AIDS, epilepsy, glaucoma, cancer and other illnesses. The trio had faced prison terms of up to 30 months in prison. Matz called the prosecution at the behest of the Drug Enforcement Administration "badly misguided" and, in reducing the sentences, invoked a legal doctrine pertaining to crimes committed to avoid "a perceived greater harm."
In January, a federal judge in San Francisco sentenced a man to a single day in prison for his conviction of distributing marijuana to sick or dying patients. The prosecutor had asked the judge to impose a five-year term. Members of the jury that convicted him were angered upon learning they had been denied information that the marijuana was used for medical purposes.
The DEA has tried to punish doctors for recommending the use of marijuana by their patients. However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Hawaii, has ruled that doctors may legally recommend marijuana, and the U.S. Supreme Court last month declined to review the case.
Patients use marijuana to reduce muscle stiffness and pain. Physicians disagree about its effectiveness, but a study published this month by The Lancet, a British medical journal, concluded that capsules containing a cannabis extract improved some symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Patients who use marijuana say smoking it is more effective because it enters the bloodstream directly.
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Flawed legal advice
led to TheBus breachTHE City Council is caught short of money that should be refunded to senior citizen and disabled bus riders because of bad legal advice from the corporation counsel. In advising Council members that bus passes were licenses and not contracts, the city's attorney told them what they wanted to hear rather than providing an informed legal opinion. The financial pinch is the result.
THE ISSUE
The city has agreed to compensate senior and disabled bus riders who turned in their unexpired passes and bought new ones.
The Council revamped the bus fee structure in October to meet the rising costs of running TheBus, including a new union contract. Among the changes was a rate increase for seniors and the disabled, from $25 for a two-year pass to $30 for one year. Holders of unexpired cards were told to turn them in and buy new ones, with no reimbursement for the months remaining on their old cards.
That was quickly challenged by five bus riders, whose attorney, Jack Schweigert, called the action a breach of contract. The corporation counsel's office had provided the City Council the preposterous advice that there had been no breach because the bus passes were licenses, not contracts.
A transfer of money in return for services is a contract. Licenses are issued to permit a certain conduct, such as hunting pheasants, driving a car or practicing law or medicine. Some licenses also are contracts if they are not fully revocable.
When U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor informed the city attorneys about the basics of contract law and ordered them to allow the five plaintiff bus riders to continue using their old passes, Deputy Corporation Counsel Gregory Swartz said he was "flabbergasted." He shouldn't have been.
The lawsuit filed by Schweigert was not a class action. However a refusal by the city to give refunds to all victims of the city's mangled bus pass revision could have led to such a broadly inclusive lawsuit by the estimated 28,000 riders who turned in their unexpired passes and bought new ones. The city agreed in a meeting with Schweigert to pay the refunds.
Swartz says the city needs $1.3 million from raising bus fares for seniors and the disabled to keep TheBus running at full service. "The city doesn't have the money to refund," he said. "I'm not sure where we will find it."
That should be up to the City Council, with advice by an accountant who will be more forthright about the numbers than the corporation counsel was about the law.
