In what is becoming a more common occurence, yet another law enforcement agency has been forced to return marijuana and smoking paraphernalia to a medical marijuana patient in California. Rather than enforcing California’s marijuana laws, many police still believe they have a right to confiscate and charge individuals who are in compliance with Proposition 215, which allows Californians to possess and consume marijuana for medical reasons.

What’s interesting here is that the California Supreme court has refused to listen to this case, letting the Appeals court ruling, which ordered a return of the cannabis to the patient, stand. Now perhaps California law enforcement will start doing what it is paid to do – enforce California’s laws, not each officer’s personal morality!

Acting on court orders, Huntington Beach police returned 30 grams of pot taken from a medical marijuana patient last year.

An appellate court ruled in a Garden Grove case that seized medical marijuana must be returned to a patient, and three weeks ago the California Supreme Court declined to review the appeals court ruling.

That meant Huntington Beach resident David Alan Lucas could retrieve his high-grade purple urkel marijuana and a couple of smoking pipes. The 43-year-old man, who uses pot to relieve stress, says he’s surprised to get it back.

Police Capt. Chuck Thomas says the department is complying with the court order. California voters in 1996 approved the Compassionate Use Act allowing medical marijuana use.