If your landlord has asked you to remove your plants, but has not yet threatened eviction, you may want to consider cultivating in an alternate location. Remember, because patients' rights as tenants are unresolved under housing law, everything that occurs after a negative interaction with a landlord is a negotiation. If the landlord escalates his tactics and threatens to evict you, refer to California housing law websites and legal hotlines, which will better explain your rights and discuss eviction fighting strategies. Here are several housing resources:

• San Francisco Tenants' Union,
• Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco,
• Housing Resource Center-LA,
• National Fair Housing Advocate Online,
• Tenant.Net,
• California Housing Law Project - affordable housing, and
• California Housing Law Project - general housing.

After your landlord has reacted negatively to the presence of medicine on her/his property, you should begin your negotiation with an explanation about how you are a medical marijuana patient, and that you are legally allowed to possess/cultivate/medicate in the State of California. If you are comfortable discussing this private information, you may want to inform your landlord of your condition and how marijuana specifically helps you.

You can personalize this Notice to Evict negotiation letter (.doc) and use it to educate your landlord about why she/he should not discriminate against medical marijuana patients. Inform your landlord that since possession and cultivation of medical marijuana are legal under state law, some landlords must rent to patients for the laws to have the effect intended by the voters. If cultivating, assuage any fears your landlord might have about possible damage to apartment. If left with no other choice, tell the landlord that you intend to file a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) if evicted, and will look into bringing a suit. Unfortunately, once the landlord/tenant relationship has been damaged to the point that an eviction action has been initiated, patients often end up moving. So, remember to try to use the negotiations to win helpful concessions from the landlord, such as a 6-month extension of the lease and moving expenses. Ask for a written response to the letter, and then contact ASA's Legal Services Coordinator to explain the situation.

If you unsuccessfully fight an eviction (based solely on your patient status or possession of a legal amount of medicine) and must leave the premises, you can try to file a FEHA (Fair Employment and Housing Act) Complaint with the DFEH based on disability. Landlords must try to reasonably accommodate tenants with disabilities who have some specific protections. However, please note that not all conditions may be considered disabilities under California law, and because of Ross v. RagingWire, while it is important to make sure that this incident of discrimination is put on the record, this FEHA Complaint is probably a mostly symbolic statement, as it is very likely no action will be taken under current law. If you file a complaint, ask for a full investigation to create a more complete record and go through the full complaint process, which begins when you fill out the Pre-Complaint Questionnaire and then call DFEH to schedule your interview at 1-800-233-3212. Here is a flow chart that demonstrates how the complaint progresses. After filing, fax a copy to ASA's Legal Services Coordinator at (510) 251-2036.

***NOTE: Your DFEH complaint must be filed within ONE YEAR from the last act of discrimination (the eviction) or you may lose your right to file a lawsuit under the FEHA.

Write up brief summary of your case and propose it to lawyers. Note the status of your DFEH claim based on disability, and also the possibility of causes of action based on breach of contract (the lease). You will have six (6) months to file suit based on disability discrimination after you receive your Right To Sue letter from the DFEH.

You can look for information on California Housing Lawyers using www.Martindale.com or trying search terms on Google such as "civil rights", "housing", "disability" and "lawyer" and "Your Region".

Additionally, there is other information that is out there on medical marijuana and housing. Here is a San Francisco Chronicle article discussing the possible hazards of renting to a medical marijuana patient, and a pamphlet from the California Apartment Association that subtly encourages landlords not to allow tenants to use their medicine. It is important to be aware of the arguments our opponents make so that you can try to be diligent about countering the stereotypes and protecting a landlord's property.

Do not cultivate and try very hard to avoid possessing or even medicating in your apartment. If you must medicate in your apartment because of your condition, try to use edibles and vaporizers and practice sensible cannabis use (see the next section, C. for tips). Unfortunately, anything relating to marijuana carries a huge risk to any patient living in housing that must comply with HUD regulations. HUD regulations allow a landlord to evict you for any activity related to any controlled substance, including medical marijuana.Here is a 1999 Memorandum Regarding Medical Marijuana in Public Housingwritten by HUD General Counsel.

In 2002, the United States Supreme Court approved this power, unanimously, in Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker, allowing landlords to evict public housing tenants on the basis of "any drug-related criminal activity on or off such premises, by any member of the tenant's household, or any guest or other person under the tenant's control," even when the "tenant did not know, could not foresee, or could not control behavior by other occupants of the unit." Chief Justice Rehnquist justified the opinion by saying, "Regardless of knowledge, a tenant who 'cannot control drug crime, or other criminal activities by a household member which threaten health or safety of other residents, is a threat to other residents and the project.'" Here is an article about the case and a legal analysis. In March 2008, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a HUD-run Housing Authority's ability to evict patients for medical marijuana in Assenberg v. Anacortes Housing Authority.

• Keep your medicine and your medicating confined to one room and as private as possible. If you are concerned about odor, you can filter air out of the room with a carbon air filter.
• If smoking your medication is not possible in your room because of odor, you can medicate with edibles or tinctures, or use a vaporizer.
• Cultivating indoors is safer because it avoids nosy neighbors and reduces risk of theft. However, if you do choose to cultivate indoors, make sure you take precautions to ensure that your cultivation system will not damage your apartment or the rest of the building, and that there is no risk of electrical fire or flood. If you are considering cultivating, make sure that you familiarize yourself with all relevant safety procedures, some of which can be found in specialty cannabis cultivation books.
• If you must cultivate outdoors, put up a tall fence to enclose your site and post all recommendations in plain view so they can be seen. Fewer plants attract less attention from thieves and hostile law enforcement, so grow only what you need. Compost or eliminate trash offsite. Use extra odor-control methods during harvest to avoid offending neighbors.

When negotiating whether you will be renting an apartment, you do not need to alert your landlord to your patient status because of your right to medical privacy (just as you would not need to alert your landlord to prescription medication). However, it is wise to ask about your neighbors and their lifestyles, so that you can get a sense of whether they are likely to be offended by the smell of smoke and whether there are children in close proximity to your prospective apartment.

Also, when examining a lease, if you see a provision requiring you to obey all state and federal law, you may want to try to change it so that it only requires compliance with state law. You probably do not want to try to insert explicit language into the lease allowing you to possess or cultivate medical marijuana, as it creates more risk for you and your landlord, and some landlords will actively balk at such a provision and may decide to lease to a non-patient. Ultimately, you should think about inserting a provision in the lease that says, "There shall not be a breach of this contract if the tenant is complying with California state law," which is less obvious, but should hopefully extend you some protection.