yea yea already mentioned in the thread and i admited i was wrong but if oyu want to get nit picky i technically am not wrong as its not 12 years its 11 and 4 months
SO SUCK IT BITCHES
Your incorrect memory seems to also match mine. If this was all passed in '96, it would mean I was still in high school at the time. reading a bit further down in the Wikipedia article reveals this little tidbit:
...However, conservative areas such as San Bernardino and Riverside counties saw little change when local officials declared the law null and void due to conflicts with Federal Law, and continued to arrest, prosecute, and in some cases convict legal patients.
In 2003, a compromise between patients’ advocates and law enforcement resulted in the passage of
Senate Bill 420 by the California Legislature to address vague provisions of Proposition 215.
Travace (and I) are thinking about Senate Bill 420. Before this bill was passed, medical marijuana was still illegal in the eyes of many counties in CA, primarily due to how vague the law was.
So basically, Travace was right. The law was messed up from 96-03. In 03, some changes were made (from a bill even labeled as 420), which made the law much more universally accepted in California.
edit: reading further into SB420, that specific bill also provided the following:
the ability to create dispensaries and co-op growers
an ID card system
protection from being arrested by state authorities
This means that, before SB420 (from 96 to 03)
There were no dispensaries
There were no medical mj ID cards
local authorities were still allowed to arrest and prosecute you under federal laws
So people were forced to grow their own weed (or buy it illegally) even though they had a medical mj prescription. Then, even if they had a prescription, they would still run the chance of being arrested, charged, and convicted by local authorities.
So basically, Travace was right. The compassionate caregiver act was only half of the law that started the ball rolling. The other, much more important half, wasn't around until the start of 2004.