How Steve Cooley nearly became Public Enemy No. 1
By Paul Rogers
The fact that Steve Cooley nearly became the Attorney General for California should have sent shudders through the state’s medical marijuana users. As Los Angeles County District Attorney, he’s energetically sought the closure of L.A.’s pot dispensaries and there’s every reason in the world to expect he would have pursued the same on a state-wide scale had San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris not emerged as the top vote-getter last week.
“If elected, Cooley would [have] likely attempt[ed] to criminalize the sale of medical marijuana and aggressively raid dispensaries around the state,” says Kris Hermes, media specialist with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), an Oakland-based organization working to ensure safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic uses and research. “Cooley has repeatedly stated his belief and argued in court that medical cannabis sales are illegal, despite long-standing local dispensary laws in more than three-dozen California cities. Cooley would also [have been expected] to reverse the 2008 California Attorney General Guidelines, which could take away certain rights currently afforded to patients and providers. As Attorney General, Cooley would [have worked] to overturn important and hard-fought legal precedents that patient advocates like ASA have set in the courts.”
Cooley’s office did not respond to repeated requests for an interview for this article, but he was quoted in the Los Angeles Times last November as stating: “The vast, vast, vast majority, about 100 percent of dispensaries in Los Angeles County and the city are operating illegally, they are dealing marijuana illegally, according to our theory. The time is right to deal with the problem.” In August of last year, Cooley and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca informed all the county’s mayors and police chiefs that they believed over-the-counter cannabis sales to be illegal. Accordingly, they encouraged them to adopt permanent bans on dispensaries.
“Cooley’s track record as Los Angeles District Attorney indicates what kind of Attorney General he would be,” Hermes continues. “Cooley has made a campaign out of his opposition to medical cannabis sales, pushing for an interpretation of state law that deems sales illegal. Cooley is also responsible for numerous Los Angeles area medical cannabis dispensary raids, many of which were in compliance with local law, with the help of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“These actions certainly make one question whether Cooley has been attempting to undermine California’s medical cannabis laws, but his participation in trainings hosted by the California Narcotics Officers Association—staunch opponents of medical cannabis—on how to ‘eradicate medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles’ seem to paint a pretty clear picture,” Hermes says. “Cooley also opposed the dispensary regulatory ordinance passed by the City of Los Angeles, choosing instead to continue an aggressive campaign of raids and lawsuits against dispensary operators.”
The son of an FBI agent and a career prosecutor, Cooley, 63, won the Republican nomination for the office of California Attorney General in June with 47 percent of the vote (and carrying 47 out of the state’s 58 counties). He’s in his third term as L.A. County District Attorney, a position he has held since 2000. If he had been elected Attorney General of California and been able to expand his anti-dispensary crusade state-wide—despite 46 percent of the state’s voters giving the nod to full legalization last month and nine California cities voting to tax dispensaries—patients and their advocates would have likely faced long legal battles to maintain (or regain) access to medical marijuana.
“Cooley would have wide latitude to change the State Attorney General Guidelines on medical marijuana, but he would be fought heavily by patient advocates,” Hermes says. “However, what matters more are binding court decisions and actions taken by the state legislature. It goes without saying that, no matter who [is] Attorney General, we would continue to strongly defend our positions in court, already having won several landmark decisions that protect and expand patients’ rights.”
