Unlimited Pot

Last week a California appeals court ruled that a statutory limit on the amount of marijuana a patient may possess for medical use is unconstitutional. A 2004 law set a limit of eight ounces of dried marijuana, plus six mature plants or 12 seedlings. In a case involving a patient charged with possessing 12 ounces of pot, the court said the Compassionate Use Act (CUA), the 1996 ballot initiative that legalized the medical use of marijuana, can be amended only by another popular vote, not by ordinary legislation:

The Legislature…cannot amend an initiative, such as the CUA, unless the initiative grants the Legislature authority to do so. The CUA does not grant the Legislature the authority to amend it without voter approval….

The CUA does not quantify the marijuana a patient may possess. Rather, the only "limit" on how much marijuana a person falling under the Act may possess is it must be for the patient's "personal medical purposes."

Here is a PDF of the decision.

[via the Drug War Chronicle]