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Medical pot backers warn of more recalls
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By Richard Halstead Encouraged by their success in
Marin, medical marijuana supporters are threatening recall efforts against
district attorneys in four other California counties. The American Medical Marijuana Association, an advocacy
group supporting the legalization of medical marijuana nationwide, is
contemplating recall efforts in Sonoma, Placer, Shasta and El Dorado
counties, said Steve Kubby, the association's founder and national director. Lynnette Shaw, who spearheaded the effort to recall Marin
District Attorney Paula Kamena, is the association's director for Marin. It's
estimated the special election set for May 22 will cost the county $500,000. "They've been very supportive of our effort
here," said Shaw, the founding director of Fairfax's Marin Alliance for
Medical Marijuana. Association members helped gather the 13,942 valid
signatures that forced the recall, she said. "I had people come in from
all over to help." "Strategically we were involved. Rev. Lynnette Shaw
and I worked together on the (Proposition) 215 campaign so we confer with
each other. But the work was done by Marin residents, not our folks,"
Kubby said. Shaw said association members also helped raise money.
She, however, would provide no details on exactly where the $15,000 in
contributions that are funding the recall came from. She has insisted that
the law allows her to withhold that information, although the state's Fair
Political Practices Commission disagrees. Kubby, who ran as the Libertarian candidate for governor
in 1998, has firsthand experience dealing with Placer county's district
attorney. Kubby, who credits marijuana for allowing him to survive
adrenal cancer, and his wife were prosecuted on charges of cultivating and
possessing marijuana following a raid on their Olympic Valley home on Jan.
19, 1999. Placer County Deputy District Attorney Chris Cattran said
police confiscated 265 plants, 107 of which were mature, and a small amount
of peyote and psilocybin. A jury deadlocked 11-1 on the marijuana charges and
prosecutors haven't decided if they will seek a retrial, Cattran said. The Kubbys' defense attorney was Marin's renowned Tony
Serra. Steve Kubby was convicted on two felony charges for
possessing the peyote and psilocybin and could face a maximum penalty of up
to three years and eight months in prison, Cattran said. Kubby said he worked on Proposition 215 and Proposition
36, which mandated treatment instead of jail for non-violent drug offenders.
He says he supports himself primarily as a fund-raiser. The association sees recall actions as a means of
convincing local district attorneys to comply with Proposition 215, Kubby
said. "This isn't a vindictive thing on the part of
patients. It's a matter of economics," Kubby said. Rather than continue to mount costly legal defenses -
Kubby says he has spent $300,000 so far on his family's defense - "It
makes more sense for patients to pool their expenses, hold a recall election,
and show the citizens of the county what is really going on," Kubby
said. So far, the association has not officially launched any
recall effort, said Jay Cavanaugh of Los Angeles, who is heading up a recall
committee. The association would much rather see the district
attorneys in these counties implement more liberal prosecution guidelines -
similar to the 7 pounds of dried pot a year allowed to medical users in
Oakland, Cavanaugh said. Taxpayer groups in some of the counties are concerned
about the mounting number of civil lawsuits being filed in connection with
medical marijuana prosecutions and the possibility of class action suits in
the future, Cavanaugh said. Assistant District Attorney Edward Berberian said he only
recently had learned of the threat of a recall in Sonoma county. "We're not going to react to someone wanting to put
some type of political pressure on us to make a decision on how we should
apply the law," Berberian said. |