Town Extends Olive Branch to Medical Marijuana Use
Arcata’s police chief walked into the house and was led upstairs to a bedroom filled with marijuana plants and enough smokable pot to fill a grocery bag.
Instead of reaching for his gun or a search warrant, Mel Brown offered a handshake.
“I used to leave places like that with plants and prisoners,” Brown said on the way out of Jason Browne’s marijuana garden. “But here, law enforcement is holding out the olive branch to people who smoke medical marijuana.”
Tucked between groves of towering redwoods and misty coastal beaches in far Northern California, Arcata, population 16,000, is getting considerable attention for its response to Proposition 215, the 1996 voter initiative that allows people to grow and use marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Brown personally issues photo identification cards bearing his signature to people who register as medical marijuana patients, after confirming that they have a doctor’s recommendation.
So far, he has issued about 100 of the “stay out of jail” cards. Officers have been instructed not to arrest pot growers or smokers who carry the ID.
Brown said he is not concerned about trouble from Attty. Gen. Janet Reno, who personally reminded state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer last month that Proposition 215 runs counter to federal law.
As a precaution Brown keeps no record of cardholders.
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