The California Medical Marijuana Program Act states that “Qualified patients, persons with valid identification cards, and the designated primary caregivers of qualified patients and persons with identification cards, who associate within the State of California in order collectively or cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes, shall not solely on the basis of that fact [...]

Attorney General Eric Holder announced formal guidelines for federal prosecutors in states that have enacted laws authorizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. “It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will [...]

The lack of clarity in the laws governing medical marijuana in California has led to the inevitable: litigation.  The LA County District Attorney has declared that “about 100%” of medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal because the Attorney General’s Guidelines do not explicitly permit sales.  They only permit patients and their caregivers to grow marijuana cooperatively [...]

In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which exempts from criminal prosecution for possession and cultivation of marijuana “a patient, or . . . a patient’s primary caregiver, who possesses or cultivates marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval [...]