San Luis Obispo should save the taxpayers some money and just pay Kimberley Marshall for the medical marijuana the Sheriff’s Department seized and destroyed without any concern for her status under Proposition 215 (“Patient files claim for confiscated pot,” Jan. 14). The deputies may hate Proposition 215, but their dislike will not carry an iota of force when this case goes to court. Their opinion that this lawsuit is a “stunt” could be very costly. In very short order, the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department will be found liable for destroying Kimberley Marshall’s medicine and will be forced to pay top market price to replace it.
County officials should instruct law enforcement officers that Proposition 215 and SB 420 are now the law in California and must be obeyed—even by a Sheriff’s Department used to making its own rules when it comes to marijuana.
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 7, 2010.