Medical Marijuana News

Jacob Sullum | August 23, 2007

Today (right now, in fact) a California appeals court is hearing arguments in a case where Felix Kha, a Garden Grove patient who is legally allowed to use marijuana as a medicine, is demanding that police return eight grams of cannabis they seized from him in 2005. An Orange County judge ordered the return of Kha's medicine two years ago, but the city appealed. Kha's lawyer, Joe Elford, notes that such defiance of California's Compassionate Use Act remains common, although some law enforcement agencies, including the California Highway Patrol, have seen the error of their ways.

In other medical marijuana news, Barack Obama has joined the seven other Democratic presidential candidates in promising to call off the DEA's medical marijuana raids if he's elected. In case you're keeping track, that's 100 percent of the Democrats who say they'll respect California's policy choices in this area, compared to 25 percent of the Republicans. Fred Thompson, who has not officially announced his candidacy yet, has made noises about the importance of federalism but so far as I know has not taken a stand on this issue yet.