Today activist Lynnette Shaw ends the War on Medicinal Marijuana -
I just got home from a friend's 93rd Birthday party to find out that my wonderful friend, Lynnette Shaw finally had her years of being kicked around by the Federal Government to be over and done with.
Lynnette was one of a handful of activists that put together the wording for Proposition 215, which made medicinal cannabis legal inside the state of California. In 1996, this proposition was approved by a majority of California voters and then the state legislature wrote up Prop 420. The wording of Prop 420, although it did not totally align with the spirit of Prop 215, did come close.
And at that point, medicinal cannabis clinics began to spring up all over the state of California. At that time, people were not using the substance so much for ending cancerous growths, but for help with wasting away, that was the result of either AIDS or else various cancer treatment. People eagerly became members of these clinics and began enjoying a return to health.
And as someone whose heart was dead set on opening a medicinal cannabis distribution center to help out the people of Marin County, Lynnette's story should have started and pretty much ended there. She opened up the first medicinal cannabis clinic in Fairfax, the first center to open up inside the state.
Her clinic served as a model for many of the other clinics. But Janet Reno and Bill Clinton had their eye on her. She was audited by the Federal government numerous times, always to pass with flying colors. But despite her ability to stay within the parameters of an ever changing situation, she eventually was served papers demanding that she cease and desist in operating the clinic. These papers were signed by Bill Clinton and Janet Reno. (Clinton was at that time the President of these United States, while Reno was serving as the Attorney General.)
She learned at that point as long as she either counter sued or employed other strategies, the clinic could remain open.At one point she ran for lieutenant governor, as it is not possible to openly hassle someone running for office.
But eventually the Big Guns got their way. The clinic was shut down, and she was issued the injunction ht prohibited her from working inside her clinic or any clinic anywhere inside the USA. Since by this point, she had as the major accomplishment on her resume her being the owner, operator and chief CEo of the Marin Medical Marijuana Alliance, there was not any other job that paid well that she was suited for.
Also the government ordered her to pay restitution to them, for whatever complicated reasons I now forget.
Not only that, but the Feds did something to her that they have done to NO OTHER SINGLE
CITIZEN OF THE USA, not even to major cartel drug kingpins - they zeroed out her Social Security earnings. Since the majority of her earnings in her lifetime had come to her as the owner/operator of the med marijuana clinic, the government claimed that all the monies she had earned and all the monies she had paid into her social Security Fund were ill begotten through an illegal career of drug dealing.
Her savings account with ten thousand dollars was taken as was her car. She managed to hold on to the home she lived in due to it being part of an inheritance. But without a source of income, she was facing its loss in foreclosure.
However, last year, The US Congress voted in a piece of law, Bill 538, which stipulated that the US Department of Justice could not utilize any federal monies to prosecute, oppress or hassle either individual states or any human individuals. So Shaw decided to seek judicial relief and to have a case heard before a Fed judge to establish that the entire case against her, and all the stipulations, including the prohibition of her right to work int he medicinal marijuana field, (or even as an ice cream store clerk for that matter, as any earnings she received the DOJ would seize) were, are and always would be indeed totally illegal stipulations and that all prohibitions and discrimination that had been thrown her way were to be dissolved.
This happened over the summer. Her paperwork was filed, by her Santa Rosa attorney, Greg Anton. An the matter was assigned to Judge Breyer, who is the brother to the US Supreme Court Breyer.
Then the only thing that Shaw could do was wait. Cynic that I am, I figured that Breyer would be paid off by Big Pharma. There is one reason and one reason alone that that the Big Pharmaceutical corporations are not standing on the side of normal citizens when they use this substance for relief of their wasting away, for dissolution of their tumors, for balancing their blood. When even the US National Institute of Heath comes out and states that cannabis has anti-cancer properties, why are the big Pharmaceutical companies not beating a path to Shaw's doors, asking for her to assist them in moving from radiation and chemo to the actually effective medicine that is easy to grow and that is nature's best compound for total relief from illness.
But instead, the vultures at Big Pharma went tearing down her door and destroying her clinic, and ruining her life! (And additionally, making it difficult for people in Marin County to obtain Medicinal Marijuana.)
So anyway the last few months have been Shaw waiting in astate of suspended animation. I learned to keep my mouth shut - to my way of thinking, since there is no single law that makes it necessary for a judge to rule on such a legal situation in a timely fashion, I expected Brayer to drag his feet.
Imagine my surprise when Shaw called me two weeks ago to say that Breyeer wa going through the defendant's paperwork and was trying to determine the validity of the defendant's statement. (The defendant being the US Justice Department.
One of the things the DOJ claimed in their reply to Shaw's deposition was that the US Congress had NOT stipulated that the DOJ must cease its persecution, prosecution and hassling of individuals. The DOJ asserted that Congress left them those abilities and that they could use Fed monies to do any activities they needed to undertake for the purpose of stopping individuals from growing or distributing medicinal cannabis inside the state.
The DOJ insisted that they were prohibited only from suing the state of California itself, not the individual citizens and that the wording of Bill 538 proved that this was the intent of Congress when they wrote up and voted on 538..
But Shaw's attorney brought in a deposition from one of the US Senators that had written 538. And he either wrote and or phoned Breyer nd laid out that it was illegal for the DOJ to undertake any prosecution or harassment of US citizens, not just the state, but citizens.
In other words, DOJ - you were fucking liars and you lied to a Federal Judge!
So by last Tuesday, the rebuttal to the DOJ's lies was there in Breyer's lap.
And today, oh Glory Be, Judge Breyer remained an honest man, free from the corruption of the Big Pharmaceutical industries. He issued his determination that the DOJ has no authority over Shaw, and that it never had authority over Shaw.
Her seized bank account monies will be returned. Her Social Security payments will have to be reimbursed into a Social security fund with her name on it. Ditto the seized car, or one of similar make and model.
And she is as of this afternoon free to work in any clinic anywhere in this state or any of the other states, for the rest of her LIFE.
Congratulations, my friend. I am so happy that the Fates have finally smiled on you. All your wisdom, patience exuberance and above all concern for the sick and suffering - all of that good karma has finally paid off.
As a middling aged woman who never even took more than $ 50,000 a yr for her full time handling and operation of the clinic in Fairfax (while other clinic operators make at least twice that) she is vindicated, and in her vindication, so are we all!
And a hearty round of applause, at least from my household, to her attorney, Greg Anton!
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