2 comments | Editor’s Note: Eugene Davidovich is a medical marijuana patient who was arrested during Operation Endless Summer (also known as Operation Green Rx). He is currently being charged with four counts of possession, transportation and sale of marijuana but he believes he was targeted for being a medical marijuana patient. SDNN political editor Hoa Quach has invited him to blog about the charges brought forth against him and his trial. This is a blog entry by Davidovich, the views expressed here are his own and does not reflect the views of any SDNN employee. Also, read his past blog entries.
Eugene Davidovich, a defendant in the Operation Endless Summer case.
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has been in power since 2003. She is the first Jewish woman to hold the office of San Diego District Attorney, the first openly lesbian DA in the country, and holds strong conservative republican views. This unique political and personal combination garnered her deserved attention during the campaign and helped her secure the position she now enjoys. In fact many of her then supporters are the same voters that helped pass Proposition 215 (Medical Marijuana Compassionate Use Act) into law.
One would think that these strong conservative values combined with a passion for progressive thinking would land her on the side of state’s rights, personal freedom, and in support of the will of the people. Still, since 2003 Dumanis has waged a war on medical cannabis and has aligned herself with the personal rights eradication movement that is alive and thriving in San Diego County.
In recent conversations with political activists who went to bat for Dumanis during her campaign, I encountered feelings of regret, betrayal, disillusionment, and confusion about her alignment with this fringe rights eradication movement and her aversion to compassionate use.
Dumanis’ war against medical cannabis began with brutal raids on dispensaries, collectives and cooperatives in collaboration with gun toting federal drug enforcement authorities. Later it included an expensive and resource-draining lawsuit against the state mandated Medical Marijuana Program, which resulted in the United States Supreme Court refusing to hear the case, and San Diego County now being forced to issue Medical Marijuana Identification Cards.
Perhaps this insight should have discouraged Dumanis, yet it did not. Joining forces with the Chief of Police and some on the County Board of Supervisors, Dumanis devised a new plan for eradication. The plan now includes new fines and penalties for patients who attempt to collectively cultivate cannabis.
This new ‘tool’, recently approved by our county board, sworn to uphold the will of the community and making a mess of it, allows the D.A.’s office to make a determination themselves, without benefit of the law, as to whether a facility in their own one-sided opinion is an “illegal dispensary.” If they suspect that it is, this new tool allows them to shut the place down, assess penalties, and charge patients, who are supposed to be protected under Prop 215, with felonies.
In a recent conversation with Steve Kubby, who played a key role in the drafting and passage of California Proposition 215, he said “the intention of Proposition 215 was to take the medical cannabis issue out of the criminal laws and to put it into the Health Code. It seems that the will of California voters is being subverted in San Diego.”
Dumanis’ war on patients and medical cannabis in San Diego has not gone unnoticed; for years patients have been appealing to the City Council for help.
Today, patients’ pleas and appeals for help are perhaps finally being heard. The City of San Diego is taking action. Item 332 of today’s City Council Meeting Agenda reads:
“Today’s Action is to, adopt the following resolution: Creating and establishing a Charter Section 43(b) Citizens’ Committee, to advise on questions related to medical marijuana. Declaring that the Task Force shall advise the City Council on (1) guidelines for medical marijuana patients and caregivers; (2) guidelines for the structure and operation of medical marijuana cooperatives and collectives; and (3) guidelines for police department enforcement regarding medical marijuana.”
It is the hope of thousands in San Diego that today’s action will help bring clarity to the serpentine roadmap that makes up our compassionate use medical cannabis laws, and will hopefully put a stop to this senseless war and continued harassment of legitimate medical cannabis patients.
This agenda item will be will be considered in the afternoon session which is scheduled to begin today at 2 p.m. in the City Council Chambers located on the 12th floor of 202 “C” St. Please come out and support our City Council as they take this historic and long awaited action.
Eugene Davidovich can be reached via his Web site.
Tags: cannabis, city council, collective, dispensary, district attorney, Dumanis, marijuana, medical marijuana, operation endless summer, operation green rx, pot, SDNN, task force, Uncategorized
Comment by: michael-leonard Posted: September 8, 2009, 2:14 pm
Normally, “strong conservative values combined with a passion for progressive thinking would land her on the side of state’s rights, personal freedom, and in support of the will of the people.”
But, in the realm of ‘law enforcement’ the opposite is true. Law enforcement means control, interference with others and, ultimately, taking freedom by putting folks in jail. That’s what a DA does.
By her blind opposition to marajuana law, her blind support for every criminal act by a peace officer, and her continued blindness to what her constituents want,
Dumanis will find herself out of a job come re-election time.
Comment by: debi Posted: September 8, 2009, 3:43 pm
I feel strongly about this issue. I am a cannabis user. It is the only meds I will take because even asprin is an issue on my tummy. I do not drink or do other drugs. I want the co-op organizations to be sucessful. My problem is San Diego seems to have a problem with a lack of respectable co-ops. In my neighborhood there was a “dispensory” that didn’t seem to care who was buying and then hanging around a block away selling on the street. Another in the beach area has cars parking with 3-4 people inside while one guy/girl runs in. They are so brazen about it they may not even park legally. It makes it look bad. This is San Diego trying to hide the co-ops and maybe it is a plot to keep us all uneasy about it. Education should be first.