Jerry Brown to challenge court's ruling on medical marijuana

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pot6-2008jun06,0,4841446.story

From the Los Angeles Times
Jerry Brown to challenge court's ruling on medical
marijuana

The Court of Appeal decided that lawmakers overstepped
their bounds by amending the Compassionate Use Act.
Brown, the attorney general, disagrees with that
ruling.
By Tim Reiterman
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

12:55 PM PDT, June 5, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO — State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown is
preparing to challenge a recent appellate court
decision that struck down California's guidelines on
medical marijuana possession and cultivation, leaving
patients and police wondering how much weed is too
much.

Brown said in an interview this week that he would ask
the Supreme Court to overturn last month's decision by
the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, because it
inhibits the state's attempts to control abuses while
protecting legitimate access to cannabis.

The court ruled that the Legislature in 2003 made an
unconstitutional amendment to the 1996 voter-approved
Compassionate Use Act by specifying the amount of
marijuana that patients could possess for medicinal
purposes.

The decision, hailed by some medical marijuana
advocates, did not only cast doubt on the legality of
the standard of eight ounces of dried pot and six
mature or 12 immature plants, which is contained in
the legislation. It also threw a cloud of uncertainty
over more liberal guidelines adopted by some counties,
particularly those in the marijuana belt of the North
Coast.

Brown, who supports medicinal use of marijuana, said
the legislation was a reasonable approach to
implementing a vaguely written ballot measure. "The
proposition is not as clear we would like," he said.
"You do not need an unlimited quantity of marijuana
for medicine. But what is the quantity?"

The medical marijuana law was designed to provide
access to patients with cancer, AIDS and other
ailments. But implementation has created a hodgepodge
of local marijuana controls.