By Brittany Hanson

Garden Grove Journal

  In its efforts to stop the sale of medicinal marijuana, the City of Garden Grove may actually have helped the cause of using “pot” for medical purposes.

  In a recent end to a controversial court battle, the Garden Grove has paid out $139,000 in attorney’s fees to advocates of medical marijuana. The group Americans for Safe Access received the settlement as the result of a case involving the court ordered return of confiscated marijuana.

  “This really is a big result for medical marijuana,” said Joe Elford, staff counsel for ASA, “it helped set precedents for other cases. It’s a tremendous victory.”

  Overall, the City of Garden Grove has paid a total of $219,000, including the attorney’s settlement fee, as a result of this case.

   Three years ago, Felix Kha failed to properly stop at a red light before making a right turn. He was pulled over and when asked if he had any drugs or alcohol that night or with him, he said that he had medical marijuana, which he said he was authorized to have. At that time he did not have certification of authorization to possess the substance.

  His marijuana was confiscated, however he later produced his authorization and obtained an order from a judge to have the marijuana returned to him because it was a part of his personal property.

  The Garden Grove Police Department refused to return the marijuana to Kha on the grounds that it is against federal law to dispense narcotics, which marijuana is classified under, to any person. The only exception to this is when marijuana is being used for federal case studies.

   California’s state law conflicts with this, because dispensing and possession of medically authorized marijuana is legal.

  Garden Grove City Attorney Thomas Nixon said that the police department was complying with federal law.

    “Prior to this situation there was no precedent for how to handle this kind of situation,” said Nixon.

   The Garden Grove Police Department had allies in their stance with the California District Attorney’s Association, the California State Sheriff’s Association, the California Police Chief’s Association, the California Peace Officer’s Association as well as 16 different cities.

   The case was appealed to the state Supreme Court and the Federal Supreme court, both of which denied the case review.

  “I think there is still conflicting information on the issue,” said Nixon. Nixon also said that as of today it is still illegal under federal law to be in possession of marijuana and that if the federal government takes steps to change those laws that law enforcement would stand by those laws, no matter which way they turned.

  “Right now that’s the law and no one disputes that,” said Nixon.

According to Elford, this particular case has not only been helpful for medical marijuana patients but for law enforcement as well. Elford said that new guidelines on how to address medical marijuana patients and dispensaries are being developed to assist California’s law enforcement in the future.

  “I feel that law enforcement still views medical marijuana patients as criminals,” said Elford, “This case was a strong judicial statement that medical marijuana patients are not in fact criminals.”