Malinda Traudt, a 29 year old blind woman who also suffers from cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and severe osteoporosis, is suing the California City of Dana Point. Her attorney, Jeffrey Schwartz, is seeking an injunction to prevent the closing of Ms. Traudt’s preferred dispensary, the Beach Cities Collective in Dana Point. “Anything in federal court, in my opinion, is going to lose because under federal law it’s illegal,” Schwartz said. “In my mind, Malinda is the face of medical marijuana. She was what it was designed for.”
Which argument Mr. Schwartz plans on using, is still unclear. In the article, Schwartz sites a San Clemente ordinance that banned leaflets, but was deemed unconstitutional because it impeded free speech. I’m not sure that a free speech strategy will win in court, but I will reserve judgment until the trial is underway. I think an ‘undue burden,’ ‘pain and suffering,’ and/or ‘equal protection’ argument(s) would be more valid in a medical marijuana case, but maybe Mr. Schwartz is planning on doing just that.
Malinda Traudt started using marijuana after experiencing horrible side effects from conventional (pill) medicine. At one point Ms. Traudt’s mother was advised that her daughter could only live a few hours. In desperation, her mother replaced the pain medication with medical marijuana, and within just a few hours, all the symptoms subsided. I read a headline today out of Colorado, calling medical marijuana a ‘con.’ How someone could call medical marijuana a ‘con,’ when CLEARLY it is a viable medicine (Ms. Traudt is a prime example), is beyond me.
