Ramsey doubles down on "all sales are illegal" misinformation campaign. Continues war on patients and providers.

Marijuana Collective Members in Court

Reported by: Lauren Hallacher Email: lhallacher@khsltv.com Last Update: 7/28 6:23 pm

It’s the first case of it’s kind in Butte County. Three members of a marijuana collective, raided last year, pleaded “not guilty” today to the felony charges against them. Eight dispensaries in the Chico area were raided June 30th.. Mountainside Patient Collective was one of them. And although the three who appeared in court today are the first to face charges, the District Attorney’s office says they won’t be the last.

CW: The DA’s office chooses to continue down the warpath and makes threats in the press. Well, at least Ramsey is not on Facebook like DA Helen Harberts threatening people…yet.

Jason Anderson, Michael Anderson, and Kaitlin Sanchez are facing several felony charges for providing medical marijuana to patients in Butte County. They are the three members of the Mountainside Patients Collective, one of eight dispensaries raided last June.. And the first to appear in court.

“The legislation that allows collectives and cooperatives is very clear that you can only cultivate. You cannot sell, you cannot distribute,” District Attorney Mike Ramsey says.

CW: The Compassionate Use act is meant to “ensure seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and us marijuana for medical purposes.” Since most “seriously ill” people do not know how to, or have the desire to, cultivate their own medicine collectives serve as non-profit organizations that they can depend on to “obtain” marijuana for their medical use.

215 also says, ““encourage Federal ans State Governements to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana.” So what does AFFORDABLE mean to you? Sounds like some sort of sale, no?

According to Prop 215 marijuana possession and cultivation is allowed for personal medical use only, and by no means is it available for sales.. Even if its labeled a ‘non-profit’ by the collective. It also states that only seriously ill patients have the right to medical cannibus. Those with cancer or aids for example. “Seventy percent of their membership was under the age of 30.. These are supposedly seriously ill folks,” says Ramsey.

CW: Ramsey is so far off base here it is not even funny. First off, as shown above..Prop 215 encourages the State to set up an affordable means of obtaining cannabis for seriously ill patients. In 2004, the State legislature passed Senate Bill 420 that established the right for non-profit collectives and cooperatives, stating: “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 be subject to state criminal sanctions.”

The AG Guidelines released by now Governor Jerry Brown also took into consideration a wealth of case law regarding sales and reimbursement of costs, stating: As noted above, the only recognized group entities are cooperatives and collectives. (Section 11362.775). It is the opinion of this Office that a properly organized and operated collective or cooperative that dispenses medical marijuana through a storefront may be lawful under California law.”

As for his assertion that “70% of members were under thirty….for one, health issues know no age. Secondly, because of the stigma attached to cannabis many older patients are hesitant, especially of signing up at a collective and many do have younger patients access their medicine. A lot of 50 year old people do not want to be seen walking in an out of a dispensary due to public perception or intolerance. Younger people are also more open to alternative therapies. Why no concern of how many Paxil prescriptions are to people under 30? I bet it is A LOT or MOST…Thirdly, Chico is a college town with the median age of 26 years old. Most of the population is under 3O…(this is why 59% of dwellings are rentals vs. a 33% national average) by far it is the biggest demographic. Those can be found here.
Bay Area cannabis activist Mickey Martin is a personal friend of the Andersons. His argument…What about those who are unable to grow medical marijuana themselves. Like those who are too ill or living in apartment complexes with not enough space. “People who do live in apartments, do count on collectives and other people to grow their medicine for them because there’s just no space,” Martin says.

CW: I also said that these draconian practices and attempts to ban or severely limit access eother in dispensing collective or by the restrictive cultivation ordinance was a direct attack on low income and disabled patients who do not have the means, the ability or the desire to grow their own medicine and most often do not live in housing where cultivation is not an option.

Martin also believes the time and money spent to prepare for the raid could have been spent elsewhere. As he says, instead of attacking these medical providers. “There’s a lot of people who need this medicine and the people who are willing to stand on the front lines and provide it, don’t deserve to be dragged through court..”

CW: I went much further than this in my statements and called for the DA’s office to call off the witch hunt against providers of medical cannabis and find some real work to do.

But in the coming months, the D.A.’s office plans to file several other charges against others involved with the dispensaries raided last summer. Ramsey says, “They have a sham legal existence. They’re selling marijuana. They are really nothing more than marijuana stores.”

CW: What is a sham is that Mike Ramsey continues to act as if this is some righteous crusade against criminal activities. The “sham” is his over confidence in his cases, and his failure to understand that a majority of people want regulated and safe, well-lit places for people to access their medicine. It appears Mr. Ramsey wants patients to have to get their medicine in shady deals in the Wal-Mart parking lot. His interpretation of state law in skewed by his ideology, and even the recently leaked NEW AG GUIDELINESstate that law is unclear at best….how Ramsey is so confident on his position when the State’s top cop is not and even clarifies dispensaries, sales, and sales tax in her draft is beyond comprehension….the only conclusion I can come up with is that he is aspiring to higher office, attempting to use these cases to secure additional federal funding, or he is just an asshole…

The Mountainside Patients Collective trial date has been set for September 26th.

CW: Preliminary Hearing