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Dammit, Jim! I’m a Lawyer, Not a Doctor!

March 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Medical Marijuana


Earlier Friday it was brought to my attention that a doctor who recommends medical marijuana allegedly told his patient — my client — that “Rick Horowitz does not know medical marijuana law.”

Why a doctor would be practicing medical marijuana law — allegedly telling patients that what I told them is not true, and giving them what he thinks is the “correct” legal advice — is beyond me. Just as it would be illegal (not to mention unethical) for me to practice medicine in the State of California, so is it also illegal for doctors to practice law, unless perhaps the doctor in question also has a law license in addition to his medical license. (And this one doesn’t.)

The irony of the situation is that the client in question was one who knew better, because I obtained for him the exact result that he wanted in his case.1

Dismissals without even going to trial are like that — they frequently result in happy clients who think of me as a lawyer who does, in fact, know medical marijuana law.

And I get a lot of dismissals on medical marijuana cases. I’ve yet to have one actually go all the way to trial. In fact, because I’m “a criminal defense lawyer who knows medical marijuana law,” instead of a “medical marijuana lawyer,” I have even won dismissals in medical marijuana cases without ever mentioning the word “marijuana.”

As one of my medical marijuana clients wrote in an online review concerning my representation of her:

Mr. Horowitz displayed complete knowledge of the laws pertaining to California’s Medical Marijuana laws, as he explained in detail the specific laws and previous cases that pertained to my case.2

That case involving felony possession for sale — among other charges — was another where I obtained a complete dismissal.

Frankly, I’ve been puzzled as to why I don’t have more medical marijuana clients contacting me than I do. But today’s revelation may explain it.

And what of the case about which the good doctor was criticizing my legal knowledge, offering (apparently) to substitute his own?  [Read more...]


Endnotes:
  1. But he just bit his tongue, because he did not want to get into an argument with the doctor who was providing his medical marijuana recommendation. [↩]
  2. To read more reviews from my clients, check my Testimonials page, which contains excerpts from Avvo. [↩]
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Imagine If There Were A Law…

December 11, 2012 by 1 Comment
Medical Marijuana


Imagine if there were a law that made it illegal to possess Vicodin.

Well, actually, as it turns out, there is a law that makes it illegal to possess Vicodin…

…without a prescription.1

Now imagine that the police stopped you for some reason — or maybe they heard from a friend, who heard from a friend that you had some Vicodin — so they search your car, or your house, or you, and they find Vicodin.

But you have a prescription. So you whip out your prescription, show it to the cops, and they let you go.

Actually, it would never happen exactly like that, because most likely your Vicodin would be in a prescription bottle, with the prescription written right on it. In any event, if the only thing the police found was a prescription bottle with some Vicodin in it, they would be extremely unlikely to arrest you for that reason alone.2

But what if the police decided, for some reason, that they didn’t believe “having a prescription” was a valid defense to your having Vicodin. Suppose the police decided that everyone they found with Vicodin must be breaking the law. So everyone they stop with Vicodin shows them a prescription, or they see it written right on the bottle, but they go ahead and take all those people to jail anyway, charge them with felony possession of a controlled substance, and force them to defend themselves in court, possibly wiping out their savings in the process — and possibly going to prison anyway.

That would never happen, though, right? Well, at least we know it doesn’t happen to most people possessing Vicodin with a prescription. 

Now imagine that we were talking about medical marijuana instead of Vicodin.

Medical Marijuana

Medical Marijuana

[Read more...]


Endnotes:
  1. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11350. [↩]
  2. Mind you, when the police want to arrest somebody, they’re going to find some way to do it. But they would be extremely unlikely to arrest someone for possessing a bottle of Vicodin which appeared to have the proper information showing that it was a valid prescription. They’ll find some other reason. [↩]
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Tokin’ Appreciation: Medical Marijuana & “Profit”

October 20, 2012 by 1 Comment
Marijuana & Money


A cop walks into a bar….

Wait, that’s a joke, and what I want to write about today is no joke. This article is about a profound misunderstanding of the laws of the State of California, specifically relating to the sale of medical marijuana, and over what it means to “profit” from such sales. Because people who should not be arrested for exchanging marijuana for money are routinely arrested in California for making that exchange.

So let’s start again.

A cop walks into a marijuana grow…

[Read more...]

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Evergreen Update

May 21, 2012 by 4 Comments
Medical Marijuana


In a previous post, “Dispensing (With) Law: Strict Constructionism & Medical Marijuana,” I predicted that the California Supreme Court would take the case of City of Lake Forest v. Evergreen Holistic for review, which would make the case not citable.

I mentioned that for medical marijuana defense attorneys, there was both good and bad in Evergreen.

Well, my copy of Friday’s edition of the Daily Appellate Report just arrived.

Evergreen was taken up for review. It is no longer citable.

That’s the first time I’ve ever predicted that the California Supreme Court would take a case for review. I don’t know if I should feel good that I was right, or not. I guess we’ll have to wait to see what the end-result is to decide.

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When Law ENFORCEMENT Doesn’t Like the Law

February 19, 2012 by 7 Comments
Marijuana


By now it should be no secret that many local government officials — at least in Central California — do not believe that there is any way in which medical marijuana can be legally possessed, used, cultivated, transported, or sold anywhere in the United States. This specifically means that in any city or county in California that decides it shall not happen, it will not happen, regardless of what the law “on the books” states.

Since the law as written does allow medical marijuana to be legally possessed, used, cultivated, transported, or sold in California, the problem for such cities and counties has been how to get around the law. So far, though, that has proven to be a very small problem: the courts also disapprove of the law and have done everything possible to help the cities and counties subvert it, all the while pretending to uphold the utility of the law as to individual patients.

[Read more...]

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Up In Smoke

November 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment
up-in-smoke


In 1996, Californians passed the Compassionate Use Act in order to ensure that seriously-ill Californians who found a benefit to a natural medicine could, in fact, obtain the medicine.

Unfortunately, the medicine was one which numerous persons — sick in other, much more serious ways — deemed so dangerous that no one could make their own decisions regarding whether or not it should be taken. The government was called upon to outlaw the freedom to decide what to put into one’s own body.

U.S. citizens had already lived through a period in history where one group of people decided that putting another drug — alcohol — into one’s body should not be a choice anyone could freely make. But the much more dangerous drug had required a constitutional amendment in order to ban it — which, incidentally, didn’t work, either — and it had been a lot of work to get that amendment passed.

So the United States government, following the lead of numerous local governments before it, simply decided to ignore the United States Constitution and abrogated the rights of U.S. citizens to decide what to do with their own bodies.

Today, the Los Angeles Times reports that these enemies of the United States Constitution are making a resurgence against those who would recognize the rights of the ill to treat their illnesses as they saw fit.

Whereas the voters of the State of California had enacted legislation enabling access to medical marijuana, the courts, siding with law enforcement, have said that individual local governments may ignore that vote and may ban access.

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Pot Smoke & Mirrors

October 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Medical Marijuana


Today’s Fresno Bee will carry a story — I’ve only seen the online version so far, which promises “more” for today in the paper edition — concerning a resurgent commitment from the federal government to crack down on medical marijuana.

It’s important to understand that the government response to medical marijuana is un-American, relatively new, and based on bad science — not to mention bad government.

[Read more...]

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Stems or Bud? Proposition 19 AGAIN

October 12, 2010 by 4 Comments


I’m told by my friends who actually smoke the stuff that there’s little utility to smoking marijuana stems.  When you’re looking to buy, you’re looking for a baggie that’s heavy on bud.  (Yeah, I said it.  You’re not looking for Bud Light.)

On the other hand, I’m told by numerous people who stop by my blog to comment on the other articles I’ve written lately about Proposition 19 that, when it comes to legislation, they’re just fine smoking stems.

[Read more...]

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Marijuana & The Rule of Law

September 25, 2010 by 3 Comments


During the last few weeks, there were a few shootings — though this Fresno Bee story mentions four — when people allegedly tried to steal marijuana that did not belong to them, growing on property where they had no permission to be.

Obviously, something had to be done.

[Read more...]

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Toke It Easy, Man: More on Proposition 19

August 14, 2010 by 13 Comments


My last post, “Blowing Smoke: Proposition 19 & Medical Marijuana,” has perhaps drawn more readers than just about any other post I’ve written (including “A Drowning Man”).

Some comments indicate an incomplete grasp of what my original post was intended to point out: there is a possibility for Proposition 19, as worded, to undo the protections of the existing rights of medical marijuana patients.

This post, therefore, is another attempt to focus attention on that point and explain why, regardless of the intentions of Proposition 19 proponents, Proposition 19 may contain within it the seeds to undoing, at least in part, what was accomplished with Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, which legalized marijuana in California for medical patients who needed it.

[Read more...]

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