Brian Epis released; medical marijuana bill vetoed; drug testing bill pending

Brian Epis released; medical marijuana bill vetoed; drug testing bill pending

There is good and bad news for medical marijuana advocates in California: The good news is that last Monday medical marijuana advocate Brian Epis walked free on bail after serving more than two years of his 10-year sentence. The bad news is that on July 19, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) vetoed a bill -- S.B. 1494 -- that would have clarified that a qualified patient can possess as much medical marijuana as is consistent with his or her medical needs.

S.B. 1494 would have made several minor improvements to the state's medical marijuana law, which was recently modified by S.B. 420. Under current law, the provision that patients may possess as much marijuana as is medically necessary is not explicit. This has led to some confusion between law enforcement and patients. Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-13th Senate District) introduced S.B. 1494 to correct a drafting error in last year's medical marijuana bill -- S.B. 420 -- by specifying that the qualified patients may possess as much marijuana as is medically necessary. S.B. 1494 would also have prevented legal challenges that the law established by S.B. 420 unconstitutionally amended the citizens' medical marijuana initiative -- Prop. 215.

Meanwhile, the California Assembly is expected to consider a bill -- S.B. 1386 -- that would end the random drug testing of students with a narrow exception. After a public hearing, a school board could vote to establish an entirely voluntary random drug testing program. Only students and their parents would have access to the results, no state or local funds could be used for the testing, and students couldn't be excluded from school or extracurricular activities for choosing not to participate in the drug testing program. The Senate passed the bill months ago. Please Take Action, to ask your Assembly member to support this sensible bill.

The Drug Policy Alliance has spearheaded the efforts to pass S.B. 1386, which would save education funds, protect students' privacy, and stop an ineffective policy. One of the bill's most notable supporters is the California PTA. Its spokeswoman explained at an Assembly Education Committee hearing that "a random drug-testing program implies there is no trust." The Office of National Drug Control Policy sent an official, Dr. Andrea Barthwell, all the way to California to give the standard White House line in favor of testing, saying it could be the "silver bullet" to the "epidemic" of student drug use. After the hearing, the committee passed the bill by 7-2.

In the legal arena, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that the cofounder of Chico Medical Marijuana Caregivers, Bryan Epis, be released from prison, pending a new trial. He was granted a new trial based both on prosecutorial misconduct and on the Raich decision, which found that the federal government cannot prosecute medical marijuana patients and providers for intrastate medical marijuana possession and cultivation in medical marijuana states. The U.S. Supreme Court will review the Raich decision this winter. Epis was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a federal judge instructed jurors to disregard evidence of California's medical marijuana law -- Prop. 215. For more information on his case, and other news about marijuana policy in California, please click here.