Opinion: SLT’s cultivation ordinance would put lives at risk
By Steve Kubby
It’s the holiday season, our mountains are filled with a record snowpack and local businesses are prospering. Life is good, unless you happen to be a patient who depends upon medical marijuana for relief. For this group, the actions of the South Lake Tahoe City Council are a direct threat to their safety and very lives, all because of the misguided attempt by the City Council to fix something that isn’t broken.
What new medical marijuana cultivation ordinance can we expect from the South Lake Tahoe City Council in 2011? So far, we’ve seen proposed ordinances that demand fees and inspections of patient gardens, without offering any meaningful protection in return. The city also wants to demand building permits for anyone who grows cannabis at home, creating a public record for thieves and drug agents to use to locate and invade the homes of bona fide medical marijuana patients.
Even if you are already carefully following every confusing detail of the laws regarding medical marijuana, drug agents have their own interpretations of the law which they believe allows them to ignore the Constitution and enter homes or vehicles, without a warrant or any probable cause other than the alleged odor of marijuana. Too bad that the City Council is about to force patients to violate their own rights and place themselves in the crosshairs of a deadly drug raid.
Leading the fight against sick people is Councilmember Bruce Grego, who has been accused by a grand jury of illegally obtaining and retaining nearly a thousand dollars of city funds. So if the city continues to press for marijuana regulations, while ignoring the findings of the Grand Jury, the very legitimacy of the Council to pass any ordinance will be called into question and brought before the courts.
Whatever the council attempts to pass in the way of marijuana ordinances, it will be dead on arrival if it violates the privacy of patients. That’s because the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that laws cannot be used to force marijuana users into incriminating themselves.
In Leary v. United States, (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled upon the constitutionality of the Marijuana Tax Act. Dr. Timothy Leary, a professor and activist, was arrested for the possession of marijuana in violation of the Marijuana Tax Act. Dr. Leary challenged the act on the ground that the act required self-incrimination, which violated the Fifth Amendment. The unanimous opinion of the court was penned by Justice John Marshall Harlan II and declared the Marijuana Tax Act unconstitutional:
“Compliance with the transfer tax provisions would have required petitioner unmistakably to identify himself as a member of [a]…’selective’ and ‘suspect’ group, we can only decide that when read according to their terms these provisions created a ‘real and appreciable’ hazard of incrimination.”
Even requiring patients to disclose their activity to landlords creates a hazard of incrimination and thereby violates their Fifth Amendment rights. If property owners don’t want marijuana grown in their homes, they can say so on their leases and evict anyone who violates those terms.
Most legal medical marijuana patients want to comply with the law, but if any law or local ordinance requires disclosures of any kind, it is not constitutional and will not be tolerated. Although California offers a photo ID to patients, those cards have only a photo and a code number which allows law enforcement to determine if the card is valid. No personal information is allowed.
The consequences for anyone who is viewed by law enforcement as a member of a “selective” and “suspect” group associated with cannabis can be as severe as a terrorist attack by Al-Qaeda. That’s because drug agents are notorious for kicking down doors, detonating stun grenades, terrorizing occupants, and shooting family dogs, even if the dog shows no aggressive behavior or is actually fleeing. Just ask Cheye Calvo, the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, about how SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking, terrorized his family and shot his two dogs to death, as the dogs attempted to flee, all because a pound of marijuana was accidentally delivered to his home a few minutes earlier.
It’s been just over a decade since my own family was surveilled during the Christmas holidays and then raided by 20 heavily armed agents. I pointed out to the invading deputies that I was only exercising rights that had been granted by the voters in the passage of Prop. 215, an initiative I helped to write and pass. I was told that California’s new medical marijuana law “might be fine for those faggots in San Francisco, but it didn’t fly in Placer County.” They seized everything, even Christmas presents to our daughter.
My wife and I were then jailed and charged with 19 felonies, over something that was ultimately dismissed. To his credit, Placer County Sheriff Ed Bonner apologized to me and promised his department would respect the new law. Unfortunately, the physical and emotional scars of that holiday raid still haunts my family, especially this time of year when our family should be able to enjoy all that life has to offer.
This holiday that brings so much joy and happiness to the world, isn’t quite so rosy when you consider the terrifying threat of any contact with a federal drug agent. Under current federal law, simply growing a small tray of 100 seedlings or clones could force a medical marijuana patient to face a 10 year mandatory minimum in sentencing. Furthermore, as was the case for El Dorado County’s own long-time resident, Dr. Marion Fry and her husband Dale, the feds can add up how many plants one grows over several years and if that number exceeds 100, prosecutors can demand and get a 10 year mandatory minimum sentence.
Instead of further endangering sick people, the City Council should be crafting a cultivation ordinance that provides meaningful protection to patients from violent crimes by drug agents conducting a drug raid who shoot the family dog or discharge a weapon when children are present. In fact, the city should demand that no marijuana raid can be conducted by any drug agents, unless a real victim — who is not an agent or paid informant — actually files a real police report and an investigation shows actual violations of state law taking place.
For those who might think anything written here is any sort of exaggeration, I dare you to watch this video of a drug raid showing agents shooting the family dog with a seven-year-old boy present — even though no drugs were ever found. This is exactly the kind of violent, dangerous, state-sponsored terrorism that the current proposed cultivation ordinance would unleash upon our otherwise peaceful and law-abiding community.
Steve Kubby is a South Lake Tahoe resident who has been active in legalized medical marijuana in California.
Medicinal Cannabis is effective in a wide variety of conditions ranging from glaucoma to pain, to muscle spasms to nausea of chemotherapy, to malnutrition. The list can go on, including recent scientific findings that Cannabis can even be an “exit substance” for recovering alcoholics or hard drug/prescription drug abusers. Cannabis is not physically addictive as it lacks a documented physical withdrawal syndrome, and the so-called “gateway drug theory” is invalid and was recently called “half-baked” by a scientific study. Research also determined that there is no connection between smoking Cannabis and lung cancer (which to me demonstrates that Cannabis has anti-cancer properties), that is also being confirmed by the ongoing studies. Cannabis also may be helpful in treatment, and even in prevention, of Alzheimer’s disease. Medicinal Cannabis Legalization is not even a “partisan” issue, as the brave Citizens of Arizona showed us by legalizing Medicinal Cannabis in their rather conservative State. I really believe that all the fear mongering should be rejected, and Medicinal Cannabis should be legalized in all 50 States ASAP!
A friend has about 1000 sq ft of his home dedicated to a “grow op”. He has all the usual hydroponic gear, as well as metal halide lighting. Initially there were some problems with moisture build-up, but those were easily solved by placing a dehumidifier in the room. All of his electrical systems are up to code and nothing leaks.
Were my friend to grow pot in his grow-up, Bruce Grego et al would be telling us the sky is about to fall. Because my friend grows gourmet tomatoes instead of med pot, Bruce Grego sees no problem.
Isn’t the agenda obvious? People who are opposed to cannabis usually arrive at their conclusions based on religious/cultural prejudice. They will latch on to any available red herring.
Med pot growers are neither a danger nor a nuisance to others.
But their pot does stink up the neighborhood…
Does this mean if Arizona’s new medical marijuana law, or rules require a name or other identifying information rather than a picture and ID number, that it’s unconstitutional and can cause lawsuits?
I read the court ruling and I’m no attorney, but it looks like Arizona medical marijuana patients would be a ’selective’ and ’suspect’ group under the ruling.
I wonder how much MJ he had to smoke to get to the point where he could believe his own bull?
@Rob: The unbelievable “bull” is the prohibition of Earth’s most beneficial plant species. That abomination is doomed. Get over it.
Tahoe has always been synonymous with recreational mj. This is an opportunity to label it as a place to get medical mj. SLT city-now your on to something?
I think other cities are way ahead of this little town, it will never be an Amsterdam. Go to the big cities in California, and there are 100’s of dispensaries in every city.
Even if people don’t have a problem with pot smokers medical or otherwise, they still don’t want it growing in the house next door, unless of course it was truly for one person; which would probably be 1-2 plants, but that’s not what were talking about, are we…
I believe that are city is going to get control of the ” wild the west” model that has black eyed the dispensaries image in our town and across the state. getting control of how dispensaries are ran will help stop the”moonshining”that is happening in are town. It is not taking our right away as a patient to regulate and the city has the right to regulate anything that has to do with the health safety of the public. I would not want to buy “medical grade cannabis” from a business that has no regulation on were there cannabis is coming from. Is it from the unregulated house stinking up your neighborhood?what chemicals are they using?do they know how to check for molds? The medical cannabis is a new industry and needs to be taken serious and follow proven industry guide lines like the USDA organic program. every body should have the right to grow there own cannabis just like brewing a few bottles of beer but to start a small brewery in your neighborhood would likely hit the same opposition. If safeway had no regulation I’m sure we would see small brewerys thought our neighborhoods. look at what napa has done with it’s wine it has made it a life style and the community has greatly benifented from it even if not directly in the industry. our town needs help and controlling the cannabis industry can help fuel other industrys and buisnesses and get tahoe on its feet. BRING BACK THE THAOE SPIRT!!! lets get tahoe sustandable again.
Everyone is sick and tired of listening to you rant and rave about this issue and it has proven time and time again to be a losing issue for you and your pals. Prop 19 lost and last I checked, you got creamed in the City Council race. You yourself got so caught up in your stump speech, that you admitted you support legalizing marijuana and that Pop 215, was just the starting point to a bigger agenda, trying to make marijuana legal. Kubby, take your show to some other city, becasue the citizens of Tahoe are soooooooooo tired of you and your pot.
That concludes the debate on City Council issue 13 for today. The vote in favor of forcing medical marijuana patients and anybody ever convicted of possession of marijuana to where a bright green pot leaf flare on their left breast with their last name clearly legible in order to make them easily identifiable to police and other law enforcement agencies has been passed.
Up next is issue 14, whether or not to build re-education camps for marijuana offenders and other lay-abouts. Such camps would include useful labor, re-education seminars, “smoke” houses where users could be exposed to the smoke in larger groups and of course these would be located adjacent to the furnaces necessary to burn the “marijuana” for the “smoke” houses. We believe this is the Final Solution to the Marijuana Problem…
Is it nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms and by opposing end them?
Kudos to Kubby for continuing to fight the good fight for basic civil rights being violated by an unjust, unreasonable, ineffective, harmful, antiquated and unconstitutional prohibition.
Kubby-
Continue with your efforts. You have some excellent ideas. We need to start looking forward to the next election. We must unseat those self centered cronies-Davis, Cole and Birdwell. Public- look at county records and see the Cole last name on many properties (private and business) with their name attached.
Marijuana prohibition is a core cause of many of the nation’s economic
problems. It costs the United States tens of billions per year to
track, arrest, try, defend and imprison marijuana consumers, who pose
little, if any, harm to society. The social toll soars even higher
when we account for social violence, lost work, ruined careers and
damaged families. In 2007, 775,137 people were arrested in the United
States for mere possession of this ancient crop, according to the
FBI’s uniform crime report.
Like the Prohibition on alcohol that plagued the nation from 1920 to
1933, marijuana prohibition (which essentially began in 1937) feeds
organized crime and a socially useless prison-industrial complex that
includes judges, lawyers, police, guards, prison contractors and more.
It is time to end Cannabis prohibition. Cannabis is safer than alcohol and any over the counter medication including aspirin.
Thank you Steve, for doing such a great job standing up for truth, justice and freedom. It is sad that the police, politicians and prosecutors are not doing the same.
There are many arguments for an against, but the main thing here is, that now, it’s illegal! Just posted here “It costs the United States tens of billions per year to track, arrest, try, defend and imprison marijuana consumers, who pose
little, if any, harm to society. The social toll soars even higher when we account for social violence, lost work, ruined careers and damaged families.”
The people who were “damaged” and “ruined” chose to break the law, clear and simple. No matter if the law is how people deem right or wrong, its still the law right now.
So, your argument is to give in to the lawbreakers because it costs so much to prosecute them? If it costs us billions a year to prosecute murders or the Bernie Madolffs of the world, we should make it legal to do so since it costs too much to hold up the law? Maybe a stretch, but I see it as the same argument.
Approx. 85,000 people die each year from alcohol induced diseases, 450,000, from tobacco related diseases, 15,000 from prescription drug overdoses, and 1000 from aspirin. In over 5000 years nobody has ever died from any disease or overdose from Cannabis. As a matter of fact, it is impossible to overdose from Cannabis. It is non-toxic!
Cannabis is safer than the caffeine in coffee, tea or the soft drinks our children consume, yet it is illegal! Is this stupid or what?
Cannabis has numerous beneficial health and medical effects including neuro-protection from stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Alziemers. Cannabis has been shown to have anti-tumor effest against brain, breast, prostate and lung cancer. It is safe and effective in the treatment of countless diseases.
To compare a cannabis user or grower to a murderer or to a criminal like Bernie Madoff is ludicrous, to say the least.
The real crime is that it is illegal when drugs like alcohol and tobacco are legal. Yes, we waste billions of dollars every year to enforce this hypocricy. This creates an awful image to our children, especially when the cops, who have never even taken a pharmacology course, lecture/lie to them about Cannabis in their schools.No wonder our children have no respect for cops. Even the kids know the truth, as the cops look and act like fools, thugs and cowards when they arrest Cannabis users and go around saying stupid things about Cannabis.
Does it not seem strange that ones most vocal against Cannabis are the Cartels, Mafia, cops, prosecutors, probation officers, parole officers, prison guards, prison industry and politicians? They fear any kind of Cannabis legalization more than anyone else. Think about it!
It is a crime for Cannabis to be illegal. It should be as legal as gingko biloba, and some day it will be.
Steve Kubby is a great man who is trying to take a stand for what is right. Thank you, Steve. It is appreciated my more than you will ever know!
@30year: The prohibition of Earth’s most beneficial plant species is THE crime. That abomination shall fall, and soon.
What, you think Rosa Parks should have just found a seat in the back of the bus?