California, San Jose

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<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: Ordinance Number 25632

SJSU Medpot: Stop the Cal State Universities from Arresting Medical Marijuana Patients

by Jim Lohse
Sunday Aug 13th, 2006 10:23 PM
IndyMedia
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First a disabled homeless medical marijuana patient was rousted at 2:30am. She was cited under Education Code 89031 for sleeping! Much worse to us, her medical marijuana was siezed despite her new card and doctor's note. When I looked into it and protested, I was arrested and held (handcuffed) for ninety minutes by SJSU PD. Stop the ignorance, protest the intolerance!

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Hello from City Council candidate and medical marijuana activist Jim Lohse (Santa Clara County). Let me tell you about the first time I was ever arrested and handcuffed in my entire 38 years. It was on 8/4/06 at SJSU.

I am the President of the Silicon Valley Cannabis Patients Union. Our Secretary, Christine "Tina" Flora, is a disabled homeless medical marijuana patient. She normally sleeps in a park in San Jose. She got into a domestic dispute and left that park. I think it was 7/28/06.

She moved a few blocks and found a bench at San Jose State University and laid down. I don't think she intended to fall asleep, but at 2:30am the SJSU-PD found her, arrested her and took her to the station at 377 S. 7th St. (cross San Salvador).

They held her for two hours, repeatedly woke her up, and released her at 4:30am. She made it to work that day in San Mateo County. Predictably, the police took Tina's medicine. She suffers from anger, stress, depression and migraines. She was not happy.

As I looked into this, I found a willingness to ignore state law in all cases. The police I met and spoke with were ignorant of the law, pure and simple. Ignorance is bliss, meaning they felt they have the right to sieze all marijuana, on or off the campus.

SJSU STUDENTS: From what I can tell, the next ugly step would be to kick you out of school for following doctor's orders!

I had two people from the campus President's office misquote the law to me. I found out that the campus President's Office (408 924-1177) has already been notified months ago about the County ID card program.

When I spoke to SJSU-PD Chief Barnes on the phone (408-924-2222, ask for Chiefy), he was so arrogant in his ignorance it truly amazed me. He never cited Federal Law, and since he's a real state administrative agency he can't. Instead SJSU Chief Barnes said they didn't recognize SB 420. No small wonder. The day the Public Health Officer Fenstersheib presented the card program to the Police Chiefs, Barnes was out to lunch.

After I spent time educating another Barnes (Corporal / Watch Commander Barnes), he stood there the next week at his confederates arrested me and my friend. They ignored my friends calls for access to his heart medicine and 911. I allege willful police misconduct on the part of Barnes and Barnes. See our events August 17 and August 25 at 4:20 on the Indybar event calendar.

Our court dates are in October. See you at SJSU!

Jim Lohse,
President, Silicon Valley Cannabis Patients Union http://www.area420.com
svcpu [at] hotmail.com, svcpu [at] yahoo.com, jim [at] area420.com
http://www.area420.com

[budman]

Protestors hope to educate police about medical marijuana

Mary Beth Hislop
Posted: 8/29/06
The Spartan Daily

<table class=posttable align=right width=230><tr><td class=postcell><img src=bin/lohse-jim.jpg></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap>Jim Lohse, 38, lights a pipe outside San Jose State University Police headquarters during a demonstration in favor of medicinal marijuana Friday. Lohse is the president of the Silicon Valley Patients Union, also known as Area 420.</td></tr></table>Although the scheduled demonstration by the Silicon Valley Cannabis Patients Union sparked the limited interest of just a handful of onlookers, this did not prevent union President Jim Lohse from igniting a pipe full of marijuana outside of the San Jose State University Police Department at 4:20 p.m. on Friday.

Lohse said the 4:20 start time for the demonstration was a direct reference to SB420, which outlines provisions for distributing medical marijuana.

"It's actually legal for me to stand here and smoke," Lohse, 32, said.

The protest was organized by Lohse's union in response to the arrest of Christine Flora, a homeless woman, who was arrested on campus by UPD on July 26 on suspicion of possessing nearly one-half ounce of marijuana, even though she had a medical marijuana identification card.

However, campus police Sgt. John Laws said it is often difficult to determine the legitimacy of the identification cards.

"I can tell you the ones I've seen in the past … they're not very official looking," Laws said.

Lohse and fellow union member Chuck B., 52, who asked that his last name be withheld, were arrested and cited by campus police on Aug. 4 when they smoked marijuana outside of the police department.

Lohse said he and Chuck were trying to educate law enforcement officials that smoking is legal if a person has a valid medical card. Lohse said both of them do.

Chuck said the police confiscated his marijuana, took away his heart medication and left him handcuffed in a holding cell for at least 45 minutes.

Lohse said he doesn't understand why marijuana is so maligned.

"One bottle of alcohol will kill me," Lohse said. "Fifteen hundred pounds of marijuana would kill me."

Lohse said he is frustrated by law enforcement agencies that do not honor California law SB420, which prevents arrests of qualified individuals for possession of a specific amount of marijuana and requires police to comply with these provisions.

The bill was drafted by former state Sen. John Vasconcellos in order to clarify the mandates of Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative, which was passed by California voters in November 1996. While the proposition gave medical marijuana users a defense in court, it did not prevent their arrest - SB420 does this.

The bill passed the state senate in September 2003 and was signed into law by former Gov. Gray Davis.

Laws said that there are several organizations that are legitimate and do a good job in making sure that those who receive medical marijuana really need it.

"There are (also) some organizations that are thinly-veiled drug suppliers," Laws said.

Former Libertarian congressional candidate Dennis Umphress attended the demonstration to distribute information from Americans For Safe Access, a grassroots organization that promotes the rights of patients and doctors to use marijuana for medical purposes.

Umphress said UPD is ignorant of the law.

"I'm here to conduct law enforcement training," Umphress said.

Umphress said he goes to different cities to advocate and demonstrate for medical marijuana clients. "We didn't start out as protesters, which is the funny part," he said.

Laws said he does not know if any UPD officer saw Lohse smoking marijuana on campus last Friday, but he was not arrested. Laws said the department has not established any new policies for medical marijuana users.

"We are in conference with the local D.A.'s (district attorney) office to determine whether we need to modify our procedures regarding marijuana enforcement," Laws said.

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