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People v. Phomphakdy (Cal. Ct. App. - July 31, 2008)

By Shaun Martin

The theme of the past 36 hours of my life has been: "Drugs, drugs, and more drugs!!" And, no, I'm not talking about personally. I mean professionally.

Yesterday the Court of Appeal (correctly) affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by San Diego County to the identification card provisions of the Medical Marijuana Program Act, and I briefly talked about that decision here. Then, that afternoon, I took the bench as a pro tem and decided a couple of cases, in one of which drugs played at least a healthy role. At the end of the day, back at my office, I then commented upon a decision by the Court of Appeal that, inter alia, discussed a Los Angeles physician who's willing to say that consuming three to six pounds of marijuana a month seems about right. Which is definitely nice. At least if you're into that sort of thing.

Thereafter, in more drug-related news, this morning, I donned a DEA jacket (metaphysically, at least) and, surrounded by a dozen DEA agents, executed -- as a court-appointed special master -- a search warrant on a physician (the name of whom I shan't reveal) who allegedly diverted a fair amount of controlled substances. Getting hooked on Vicodin, it seems, is not a good life, and entails an extremely hard habit to control. Finally -- or at least finally for now -- I stumble across this case, in which the Court of Appeal holds that Medical Marijuana Program Act's typical limit of "no more than eight ounces of marijuana" and ?no more than six mature or 12 immature marijuana plants" unconstitutionally amends the Compassionate Use Act. And also, for those in the Bay Area up north, mentions Hany Assad, who's another doctor (like the other one I discussed yesterday) who's more than willing to both prescribe marijuana and testify -- again, ultimately successfully, at least once the case gets to the Court of Appeal -- on behalf of the defendant. (Though I must warn you that the stuff here about Dr. Assad doesn't sound especially good.)

In short, for me, at least, the past 36 hours have been all about drugs. And that's not even counting the fact that Cheech and Chong just announced that they're getting back together.

Dude. Like, heavy.

Full post as published by California Appellate Report on August 01, 2008 (boomark / email).