How much pot can you possess courtesy of a medical marijuana card? The answer used to be straight-forward: eight ounces of dried pot, 6 mature or 12 immature plants.
No more. Last month the California Supreme Court ruled that those limits, approved by the Legislature in 2003, are unconstitutional. Every person can have a “reasonable” amount for their individual needs, the Court said. That could mean some people like Patrick Kelly, the plaintiff in the case, could have way more than the above limits. It also means that a whole bunch of people who have med-mar cards for nothing more serious than headaches or stress could be in violation for having less.
The decision does raise a lot of questions for law enforcement. Cops don’t want to arrest, nor the DA prosecute, cases where the person has a right to the pot under state law. Doing so is obviously bad for the person arrested and the jail and court system. Some kind of guidelines could be issued for the normal case, while recognizing that each case must be decided individually. Obviously, cops aren’t qualified to say how much is reasonable for each individual. I think the end result is that arrestees must clearly hire counsel to argue the facts of how much they’re entitled to.
