Now For Some Good News: “Harris Holds Big Lead Over Cooley

Jim Finnel

Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
Officially, the California race between Steve Cooley and Kamala Harris for Attorney General remains ‘undecided.’ But the totals from the latest vote count appear to tell a different story.

Harris holds big lead over Cooley in undecided California attorney general race
via Southern California Public Radio

Kamala Harris picked up more than 9,000 votes yesterday in the still-undecided race for California attorney general. The San Francisco district attorney now leads L.A. County’s DA, Steve Cooley, by nearly 52,000 votes.

About eight-and-and-a-half million ballots have been counted; there’s a stack of 500,000 still to go.

Some political observers, like L.A. City Councilman Eric Garcetti, said last week that back-of-the-envelope calculations don’t give Cooley much hope of winning.

… We’ll know for sure when the secretary of state ratifies the results December 10.

As I’ve written previously, the California Attorney General’s race has significant implications for the distribution of medical cannabis in California, as Cooley had pledged to prosecute dispensaries that engage in over-the-counter cash sales of marijuana to authorized patients.

Present Attorney General guidelines, issued under former A.G. (now Governor-elect) Jerry Brown in 2008, authorize the distribution and non-profit sales of medical cannabis in California by qualified “collectives and cooperatives,” but warn that ’storefront’ business that engage in the for-profit sales of medical marijuana “are likely operating outside the protections” of state law. Cooley has long maintained that California dispensaries that engage in over-the-counter sales to customers do not meet a legal definition of ‘collectives’ or ‘not-for-profit’ entities.

By contrast, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has previously voiced strong support for protecting the legal rights of patients who use cannabis medicinally, stating, “We will not prosecute people who use or sell marijuana for medicinal purposes.”



News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE
Author:paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
Source: NORML
Copyright: 2008 NORML
Contact: Contact Us - NORML
Website: Now For Some Good News: “Harris Holds Big Lead Over Cooley In Undecided California Attorney General Race”
 
Back
Top Bottom