California Proposition 215 (1996) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Elections in California Circular seal surrounded by THE GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, with EUREKA atop the central image. A seated woman wearing ancient Roman warrior dress, with a shield at her feet, a spear in one hand, and a crested centurions helmet, looks over a bay with four sailing ships. A small brown bear at her feet noses at vegetation. A miner in the near distance swings a pickaxe into the dirt near a shovel, pan, and sluice. Tall mountains line the bay, and 31 stars arc through the sky. Federal government[show] State government (executive)[show] State government (legislative)[show] State government (judicial)[show] Propositions[show] Elections by year[show] Los Angeles[show] San Diego[show] San Francisco[show] v t e Medical cannabis card in Marin County, California, U.S.A. Proposition 215, or the Compassionate Use Act of 1996,[1] is a California law concerning the use of medical cannabis. It was enacted, on November 5, 1996, by means of the initiative process, and passed with 5,382,915 (55.6%) votes in favor and 4,301,960 (44.4%) against. The proposition was a state-wide voter initiative authored by Dennis Peron, Anna Boyce RN, John Entwistle, Jr., Valerie Corral,[2] Dale Gieringer, Thomas Seiler, William Panzer, Scott Imler,[3] Steve Kubby,[4] and psychiatrist Tod H. Mikuriya, and approved by California voters. It allows patients with a valid doctors recommendation, and the patients designated Primary Caregivers, to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal medical use, and has since been expanded to protect a growing system of collective and cooperative distribution. The Act added Section 11362.5 to the California Health and Safety Code. This law has caused much conflict in the United States between states rights advocates and those who support a stronger federal presence. Contents [hide] 1 Yes on 215 Campaign 2 Results 3 Protections afforded by Proposition 215 4 Implementation and effect 5 Federal enforcement in California 6 Guidelines 7 Proposition 215 and the federal courts 8 See also 9 References 10 External links Yes on 215 Campaign[edit] Proposition 215 was conceived by San Francisco marijuana activist Dennis Peron in memory of his partner, Jonathan West, who had used marijuana to treat symptoms of AIDS. In 1991, Peron organized Proposition P, the San Francisco medical marijuana initiative, which passed with 79% of the vote. Prop P did not have force of law, but was simply a resolution declaring the citys support for medical marijuana. Santa Cruz and other cities followed suit with similar measures endorsing medical use of marijuana. The California legislature went on to approve medical marijuana bills by State Senator Milton Marks and Assemblyman John Vasconcellos, but they were vetoed by Governor Pete Wilson. Frustrated by the Governors veto and by the Clinton administrations ongoing refusal to allow medical marijuana, Peron decided to turn to the voters. In 1995, Peron, Gieringer and Imler organized Californians for Compassionate Use, a PAC dedicated to putting medical marijuana on the ballot. Californians for Compassionate Use began a grassroots, volunteer-based petition drive to collect the more than 400,000 signatures required to qualify for the ballot. As the deadline approached and it was becoming clear the unpaid signature gatherers were not on pace to qualify, a group of philanthropists, including George Soros, Peter Lewis, and George Zimmer, stepped in to pay for professional petition circulators through the Santa Monica, CA based political consulting firm of Zimmerman & Markman.[5][6] The opposition campaign to Proposition 215 included a wide variety of law enforcement, drug prevention groups, and elected officials, including three former Presidents and California Attorney General Dan Lungren. Ballot arguments against the proposition were signed by prominent prosecutors and law enforcement officials who claimed that, while appearing well intentioned, it was an overly vague, bad law that, allows unlimited quantities of marijuana to be grown anywhere … in backyards or near schoolyards without any regulations or restrictions, and that it effectively legalized marijuana. Ballot arguments in support were signed by prominent oncologists, a cancer survivor, a nurse, and two politicians, Assemblyman John Vasconcellos and San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, who wrote that he supported Prop 215 because he didnt want to send cancer patients to jail for using marijuana.[7] The lead-up to the election saw a series of media-based attacks attempting to make the Yes on 215 Campaign a referendum on the controversial headquarters for the initiative, Dennis Perons San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club. The very first of what would become more than 400 in the state, the SFCBC was a five-story full service medical marijuana club where qualified patients could in fact obtain marijuana for medical purposes (in various forms and qualities) in a retail setting. Far more than just a safe place for patients to consume, the club was a cultural center for many purposes. Dennis Peron would describe 1996 as a year when the stars aligned for medical marijuana. It was a presidential election year with a Democrat incumbent in a heavily Democratic state. The AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s to the early 1990s as well as recent studies regarding relief for chemotherapy patients were opening peoples minds to medical marijuana. On top of that, 60-year-old Brownie Mary Rathburns arrest for baking marijuana brownies made headlines garnering sympathy for medical marijuana. Proposition 215 passed with 55.6% support, setting off a chain reaction across North America of medical marijuana legislation. Canada now also has federal medical marijuana legislation and also operates a medical marijuana program through Health Canada (which also involves the issuance of ID cards, issuance of recommendations by physicians and maintenance of patient records), although not completely identical to that of the state of California. The issue has ALSO been to the floor of the US Congress in the form of the Hinchey-Rohrbacher Amendment, the Truth in Trials Act, and the States Right to Medical Marijuana Act. None of this legislation succeeded in the U.S. Congress.[8]
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 17:20:53 +0000
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