The Struggle for Collective Cultivation and Distribution Continues in San Diego
Eugene Davidovich, July 10, 2009
(Preliminary Hearing - 220 West Broadway, San Diego CA 92101, July 13, 2009 - 8:15am)
This week San Diego City leadership made an excellent first step towards providing patients with the long awaited and desperately needed clarification of the serpentine roadmap that makes up our Medical Cannabis laws. The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services committee heard testimony from both patients and law enforcement, and actually held a balanced debate on the issue, as well as decided to move towards re-establishing the Medical Marijuana Task force. The county of San Diego, is a different story altogether. Even though it has been over a decade since Prop 215, several years since SB420, and almost a year since the AG guidelines, only this week San Diego County implemented the ID Card program. This after being forced to do so by the United States Supreme Court.
Instead of giving up the misguided fight to overturn Prop 215 and the will of California voters and provide clarification and protection for patients, the board moved to implement the most expensive ID Card Program in the state and at the same board meeting as per the recommendation of our District Attorney and the Chief of Police, moved to make illegal dispensaries illegal, thus encouraging more prosecutions and in addition to the felony charges will now be able to assess fines for violating zoning ordinances.
Patients were expecting clarification and protection from a District Attorney who says she supports medical cannabis, instead of encouragement for law enforcement to conduct more prosecutions as the first move after the supreme court decision.
Patients were hoping that instead of recommending additional fines and penalties to be assessed to patients who attempt to follow this serpentine roadmap, the District Attorney would have recommended clarification, or guidelines for patients and collectives.
This continued prosecution and lack of clarification combined with what is said and done in courts by the Deputy DA's, such as not allowing experts to testify at Preliminary Hearings, and not allowing patients to admit their doctor’s recommendations into the record, makes it 100% clear that Operation Green Rx or otherwise known as Operation Endless Summer was just a practice run, compared to what they plan to do with all the collectives currently open in San Diego.
For the safety and wellbeing of medical cannabis patients in San Diego we need to see our City and County leadership to stand up and condemn Operation Green Rx, and continue on the path started this week by the City to re-form a citizens committee made up of patients, health officials, and law enforcement to advise the city and county on how to implement the laws already in place.
I am Eugene Davidovich and have been a resident of San Diego for over 20 years, honorably discharged from the US Navy, and having completed an MBA, I built a successful career in Software Development Project Management. As a part time effort, I operated a non profit collective here in San Diego until last February when my house was raided and I arrested in ‘Operation Green Rx’ later announced by the District Attorney in a press conference as ‘Operation Endless Summer’.
In this operation a local San Diego Police Detective lied to his doctor about his identity and condition, obtained a valid recommendation for medical marijuana and joined the majority of the medical collectives and coops listed on the San Diego section of the CA NORML list.
The detective called me and joined the collective over the phone. Then after verifying his eligibility with his doctor I allowed him to join the collective. While pretending to be a sick patient, he requested that I deliver medical cannabis to him. Having seen him once and provided him with a ¼ ounce of medical cannabis, I am now facing 4 felony charges, $65,000 bail, and permanent profoundly traumatic damage to my professional and personal life.
Please join me in the struggle for patients' rights to collectively cultivate and distribute medication by supporting me in court on July 13th, 2009 at 8:15am.
To learn more about my case and to see the actual footage of the undercover operation where I deliver the medication to the undercover officer, please visit http://www.eugenedavidovich.com
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