Statement of Steph Sherer Executive Director, Americans For Safe Access

In a time of unprecedented intimidation from the Federal Government, Medical Marijuana patients and their providers won a hard fought victory today in the California Supreme Court. In a unanomous decision, the court held on Thursday that medical users who are arrested may have those charges dismissed without a trial if they are acting under the documented advice of a doctor. The decision reasserts what California voters decided when they passed proposition 215—that patients in need should have safe and legal access to medical marijuana. While Americans For Safe Access celebrates the decision of the court, we also know that more needs to be done to improve legal access to medical marijuana for the State’s medical users. Six years after the passage of Proposition 215, State Lawmakers have yet to implement guidelines to ensure that its aims are met. Aside from a handfull of local and county juristictions that have moved to clarify their policies, law enforcement in most of the state lacks rules to deal with medical marijuana patients. Now is the time for the State to help patients in the fight for safe access to medical marijuana Governor Davis and Attorney General Lockyer should act now to implement statewide guidelines that give clear directives to law enforcement and promote compassion, responsibility and accountability among medical marijuana patients and their providers.