Court Opinion

ID: 9749442
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:43:30.812823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:48.673742
License: Public Domain

SCOTLAND, P. J., Concumng and dissenting.
I concur in the majority opinion, with one exception.
The opinion correctly concludes that California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996 does not trump federal law outlawing possession of marijuana (21 U.S.C. § 844) and, thus, the condition of probation requiring defendant to comply with federal law by not possessing or using marijuana is a proper exercise of the trial court’s authority. (See People v. Lent (1975) 15 Cal.3d 481, 486 [124 Cal.Rptr. 905, 541 P.2d 545].)
However, the opinion goes on to say, “[e]ven if we were to disregard federal law and evaluate the probation condition based [solely] on state law allowing for the medical use of marijuana, we would uphold the probation condition under the particular facts of this case.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 753.) This is so, the majority concludes, because the condition prohibiting the possession or use of marijuana is (1) related to the crime for which defendant was convicted, cultivation of marijuana, and (2) is reasonably related to future criminality, in that defendant’s history supports a determination that, in the future, he is likely to possess marijuana for nonmedicinal purposes.
It seems to me that, if we consider only California law, which permits the cultivation and use of a limited amount of marijuana for medicinal purposes, the condition of probation that prohibits defendant from possessing or using any marijuana is not reasonably related to future criminality. The People do not contest defendant suffers from chronic pain resulting from cervical and lumbosacral disk disease; that he has “not responded to any of the usual medications prescribed for neuropathic lumbosacral pain”; but that his pain is “relieved by use of cannabis.” Under this circumstance, if marijuana were not illegal under federal law, I believe that compelling defendant to forgo *756possessing and using the only substance that purportedly has relieved his chronic pain is not justified by the concern that he will possess marijuana for nonmedicinal purposes in the future. Balancing the evils—chronic pain versus the possibility of future possession of marijuana for purposes other than compassionate use—it would be unreasonable to bar defendant from lawfully possessing marijuana for medicinal purposes simply out of concern that he also may possess marijuana for nonmedicinal purposes, a possibility that is adequately addressed by the threat of future criminal prosecution.
Thus, I concur in the majority opinion only to the extent it concludes that the condition of probation prohibiting defendant from using or possessing marijuana is a proper exercise of the trial court’s authority to grant probation on the condition that defendant obey all laws, including federal drug laws.
Appellant’s petition for review by the Court was denied January 16, 2002.