SACRAMENTO – Nora Campos (D-San Jose) has filed a bill to require that all medical marijuana patients in California register with the state. The bill, AB 2465, is sponsored by the Police Officers’ Research Association of Cal, which wants to make it easier for police to distinguish between illegal and legal marijuana users.
Cal NORML strongly opposes the bill, as it infringes on patients’ right under Prop 215 to legally possess and cultivate marijuana given a physician’s written OR oral recommendation.
“Californians shouldn’t have to pay a license to some state agency for the right to use marijuana for medicine,” says Prop 215 co-author Dale Gieringer, “This bill will criminalize countless legitimate medical marijuana users who can’t afford to get IDs or don’t have them renewed or updated properly. California doesn’t need any more pot criminals.”
“Such a law would likely be struck down by the courts as an unconstitutional amendment of 215 under the same analysis employed by the state Supreme Court in the Kelly decision,” said CalNORML attorney Bill Panzer.
Read CalNORML’s letter to the Assembly Public Safety Committee on AB2465