MEDICAL MARIJUANA CARDS ARE PROMPTING A PROLIFERATION OF DRUG USE ALL OVER THE STATE, INCLUDING MARIPOSA COUNTY. PART ONE In 1996, California voters approved Propositon 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which allows patients with a valid doctor's recommendation, and the patient's designated Primary Caregivers, to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal medical use. It has since been expanded to protect a growing system of collective and cooperative distribution.

That law, combined with the current ballot measure that would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and to cultivate marijuana gardens up to 25 square feet, are fostering a statewide proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries, and private, personal gardens being grown by medical marijuana card holders.

According to the measure’s primary promoter, Richard Lee of Oakland, the effort has already secured more than enough signatures than will be required to place it on the 2010 general election ballot.

There is not a medical marijuana dispensary in Mariposa County - not yet. But counties and municipalities throughout the San Joaquin Valley are locked in a struggle to control and monitor the outlets, while trying to balance the original intent of the law.

Many supporters of the most recnet proposed legislation believe that legalizing marijuana will prove to be a windfall of tax dollars for the cash-strapped state. The proposition allows for city and county governments to determine whether to permit and tax marijuana sales within their boundaries.

A field poll conducted last April found that 56 percent of California residents supported legalizing and taxing marijuana to help bridge the state budget deficit. Law enforcement officials believe the effect will bolster the strength of the Mexican drug cartel’s stranglehold on the black market by providing untaxed, less expensive product on the street.

Law enforcement’s frustration level with the expansive abuse of the existing state law, was dealt another blow last spring. Marijuana possession or culivation is illegal and punishable under federal law.

In a campaign statement, then presidential candidate Barack Obama said, ”My attitude is if it’s an issue of doctors prescribing medical marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma or as a cancer treatment, I think that should be appropriate because there is no difference between that and a doctor prescribing morphine or anything else. I think there are legitimate concerns in not wanting to allow people to grow their own or start setting up mom and pop shops because at that point it becomes fairly difficult to regulate.”

Yet, last March, US Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. announced that the Obama administration had, “outlined a shift in the enforcement of federal drug laws, saying the administration would effectively end the Bush administration’s frequent raids on distributors of medical marijuana.”

The burgeoning growth of the previously underground industry is creating side effect issues that are a nightmare for law enforcement. Card holders growing their own personal and permitted “stash” no longer fear federal or local authorities, but they may have to fear their neighbors.

Over the past couple of years, the GAZETTE has detailed a number of reports to local law enforcement that someone’s marijuana had been stolen.

Earlier this month, a husband and wife were allegedly victims of a home invasion robbery, and the invaders absconded with four pounds of marijuana that had been grown for a collective dispensary, along with cash and jewelry. The victims reported being held at gun point, which may become a more regular occurance as dispensaries dig into the Mexican cartel’s illicit profits.

In Mariposa County, there has been a spike in cases of students at the middle school and high school level being detained for possession of marijuana. Local law enforcement officials believe the increase is prompted by children having access to mom and dad’s harvested medical marijuana, which may not be well monitored.

(This series will explore the local affects of medical marijuana, its access, what law enforcement must deal with, the stances of the proponents and opponents of current and past legislation, and the proliferation of the availability of medical marijuana cards and growing materials availabel online.)

CONTINUED IN THE JANUARY 7, 2010 EDITION OF THE MARIPOSA GAZETTE.