The following entry was written from a Mississippi jail cell by Dr. David Allen, MD. After retiring from a career as a cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Allen moved from Mississippi to California to start a practice writing medical marijuana recommendations for his patients in accordance with California law. However, he soon ended up back in Mississippi facing drug charges because a police task force allegedly found marijuana during a search of his estate there. He has been jailed and awaiting trial since December 2009.

On Thursday, July 15^th, 2010, I was moved from George County to Jackson County Adult Detention Center (ADC). I was told to pick up my things in five minutes (after living there for seven months). I had just received a canteen purchase costing about forty dollars, including a new wristwatch purchased that day. Officer Rivera took all my things and went through them and would not allow me to take these legally-purchased items to ADC. There were three other prisoners being transferred that day, and none of the other three were searched this way or had anything inspected.

 A Travesty of Justice Occurs:

• When the federal government intentionally mis-schedules cannabis as having no medical use and being unsafe to use even under a physician’s supervision, despite mountains of scientific evidence proving multiple medical uses and safety unsurpassed by any man-made medication.
• When the federal government prevents scientific medical study of cannabis so that the intentional mis-scheduling can be perpetuated.
• When local government uses the intentional mis-scheduling of cannabis as a means to profit from seized property and the incarceration of its citizens, denying them their right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
• When police seize legally-purchased property prior to a court appearance or the chance to defend oneself in court.  (This is like establishing guilt before the accused even has an opportunity to be proven innocent.)
• When police act as the judicial branch of the law and become both judge and jury.
• When police and local government profit from property seizure, giving them the motive to hunt the members of the public that they have sworn to protect and serve.  By human nature, a profit motive will “turn a good man bad.”

I am a retired cardiovascular surgeon who has been targeted and victimized.  I have lost my freedom and my Constitutional right to bail, which limits my ability to defend myself.  I have lost my family, my career, my property, my family photos and heirlooms, and everything I worked for my entire life.  Police have made public statements indicating that I am guilty, prior to court.  They have also placed false photos in the local media, showing marijuana plants they say were found at my home, when in fact none were found!  This, and the profit motive, will prevent me from receiving a fair trial.  I have been subjected to cruel treatment, which amounts to physical and mental torture.  I am a P.O.W. in the war on drugs, which is a war against our own citizens.  Stop the War! Re-Schedule Cannabis as a Medicine! If I could give my life so that this would not happen to others, I would.  President Obama, I say this to you, “Give me Liberty or Give me Death!”

Dr. David B. Allen, MD

July 6^th, 2010

If you agree with this letter, please print it out and put your signature and address on it.  Then send it to President Obama. 

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Please also send me a copy at the address listed below. 

David B. Allen MD (2009120099)

SCRCF / M Zone

1420 Industrial Park Rd.

Wiggins MS 39577

Together we can change our nation’s view on natural medicine.

To learn more about Dr. David B Allen, go to: http://www.medicalmarijuanaofamerica.com/pows/incarcerated-now/402-dr-david-allen.html

In an unsurprising 3-2 vote, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors today  passed the highly controversial amendments to Mendocino County Code 9.31, extending the county's regulatory claims to include growing collectives.  The measure includes a possible exception to the 25 plants per parcel Nuisance Ordinance through which a collective may be able to get a permit to grow up to 99 mature flowering females, if the collective is able to jump through the highly complex series of 23 bureaucratic hoops in order to get their permit.

Supervisors Colfax and Pinches were the dissenting votes.

MMMAB has consistently opposed this measure, the validity of which now passes to the courts for determination.  A challenge to the existing MCC 9.31 was filed by Attorney ED Lerman on 9/11/2009 and will be heard by Judge Behnke in Superior Court on May 14.

In the meanwhile, keep your eye on Qualified Patients v. City of Anaheim, a case which is likely to impact the Mendo courts ruling on 9.31.  A decision in that case is expected around 4/20.


Mendocino Medical Marijuana Advisory Board
PO Box 2555
Mendocino, CA 95460

707-964-9377
http://www.mmmab.net

On March 9, 2010 at 9am in Department 55 at the San Diego Superior Courthouse, day 2 of my trial will begin. District attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ office has filed a mountain of motions in limine with the court, all of which will be heard on the 9th in front of Judge So. Motions in limine are requests made by both sides to the Judge before the start of a trial that certain evidence may, or may not, be introduced to the jury.

The heap of in limine motions includes three that I believe are most troubling. The first is a request by the DA that the Judge not to allow me to use the medical marijuana defense, even though an official subpoena from the doctor who recommended the use of medical cannabis to me, was received and accepted into the record by the court at my preliminary hearing months ago. These records clearly prove to the court that I am a qualified patient, which even prompted the Judge at my prelim to say “there is evidence here that Mr. Davidovich is a qualified patient”, yet nothing fazes the prosecutor’s fierce fight.

From LA TIMES

As an $8.7-million state research effort comes to an end, investigators report that cannabis can significantly relieve neuropathic pain and reduce muscle spasms in MS patients. More research is urged.

With an innovative but little-known state program to study medical marijuana about to run out of money, researchers and political supporters said Wednesday the results show promise.

"It should take all the mystery out of whether it works. We've got the results," said former state Sen. John Vasconcellos, who led the effort to create the 10-year-old Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research.

Norman de Vall's medical marijuana forum, with guests Pebbles Trippet and John McCowen, is available to download or listen to online.  The 90 minute show has been broken up into three approximately 30 minute segments:

1. http://www.mmmab.net/NdV_931_Kelly_102110_1.mp3
   
2. http://www.mmmab.net/NdV_931_Kelly_102110_2.mp3
   
3. http://www.mmmab.net/NdV_931_Kelly_102110_3.mp3
   

The topic of the show was planned as dealing with both the existing 25 plants per parcel Public Nuisance Ordinance, MCC 9.31, in effect since February 2008 and it's bloated 37 pages of proposed revisions, being championed by Supervisor McCowen, but as yet not voted on by the Board of Supervisors.  Inevitably, it was often not clear whether the current ordinance or the proposed revisions were being discussed.

It was also a sure thing that the discussion would wander back and forth between that discussion and today's momentous decision at the CA State Supreme Court in the landmark Kelly case, and of course it did though it was not confusing when that took place.

The general tone of the show was less adversarial than has often been the case in the recent past. Phone in guests included Sheriff Allman, Attorneys Omar Figueroa and Katharine Elliot and many others.  You won't get ironclad answers on everything, since many of the issues will be decided in the seven patient plaintiff's legal challenge of the county's MCC 9.31, to be heard in Superior Court next month.  Stay tuned.

The California Supreme Court today upheld a state appeals court ruling that voided California's medical marijuana growing restrictions, calling them unconstitutional.

Anticipated widely as "the Kelly decision," in effect it also voids Mendocino County's Measure B which enacted the state limits - 12 immature plants or six mature plants and 8 ounces of dried marijuana - as the county's growing and possession limits.

The court kept alive the voluntary ID card system for patients agreeing to limit themselves.

At issue is Prop. 215, the Compassionate Use Act which legalized medical marijuana in California in 1996. The CUA did not limit the amount of marijuana a patient could grow or possess except to a reasonable amount consistent with the patient's medical needs.

Story continues on the Ukiah Daily Journal website.

312K PDF file of the CA Supreme Court's Kelly decision:  http://www.mmmab.net/Kelly_S164830.PDF

The City of Sacramento will allow medical marijuana dispensaries.  So will the neighboring City of West Sacramento.  In parallel developments, both adjoining cities are drafting medicinal cannabis dispensary ordinances.  Stakeholder input has been, and continues to be, sought by the cities. 

West Sacramento is a small town of about 50,000 people.  It is counterintuitively located in Yolo County, while the City of Sacramento is in Sacramento County.  West Sacramento is likely heading towards a cap of two dispensaries.  Sacramento, with a larger city council, and a population ten times the size of West Sac’s, is possibly leaning towards a limit of about a dozen medical marijuana storefront facilities. 

Both cities are taking a relatively calm, reasoned approach to the sometimes contentious issue.  And both draft ordinances arguably have, or will have many issues that need to be ironed out. 

Medical cannabis service providers are now serving as local hosts for the California Cannabis Initiative Petition Campaign. Directory listings on MedicalMarijuanaOfAmerica.com now have a searchable field to help supporters locate their local CCI Petition Host to sign, turn in completed signature pages and pick up blank petitions. 

Look for this banner on Directory Listings:

Service providers ready to serve as CCI Petition Hosts please contact tim at californiacannabisinitiative.org to sign up for this important responsibility, and thank you for supporting Cannabis Freedom and Justice for All.

On October 18, 2009, the Obama Administration sent a memo to all U.S. Attorneys entitled, “Investigations and Prosecutions in States Authorizing the Medical Use of Marijuana.” The advisory notice does not mention medical marijuana collectives, cooperatives, dispensaries, or any other lawful infrastructures for the distribution of medical marijuana. The document states: