BUSINESS LAW SOCIETY HOSTS OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC PANEL ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA, FEATURING SOME OF SAN DIEGO’S BIGGEST NAMES IN THE FIELD

November 1, 2013

On Wednesday, November 13, the Business Law Society hosted an academic panel entitled

“Medicinal Marijuana: Is It Really Legal?” The panel brought together several of San Diego’s

top Medicinal Marijuana Law academics and practitioners in a lively discussion. These

panleists included TJSL Professor Alex Kreit (Director of the Center for Law & Social Justice),

Collective Director Stephen McCamman (Professor of Political Science at Cuyamaca College),

Criminal Defense Attorney Lance Rogers (General Counsel for the California Cannabis

Industry Association) and TJSL Alum Kimberly Simms (Civil Attorney specializing in Medical

Marijuana Law).

Amongst the topics discussed were the overall legal and regulatory environment of the medicinal

marijuana industry within San Diego County today, the nature of business planning in an

industry so wrought with uncertainty and commercial instability, and the implications of being

involved with a medicinal marijuana collective.

The event received a positive response from students and faculty alike as it created a forum to

discuss a topic that is rapidly emerging in mainstream politics. San Diego County is unique in

that it does not have an outright ban on medicinal marijuana businesses nor does it have in place

a concrete set of regulatory guidelines by which businesses can comply with the law, explained

Professor Kreit. While there are no firm plans for this to change in the immediate future, there is

certainly a general sentiment that in the coming years, Medicinal Marijuana will become a hot

topic throughout elections across the nation, perhaps even stretching to the Presidential Election

in 2016.

On a more intimate level, Stephen McCamman had an opportunity to express what it is that

drives him as a business manager within this industry, explaining how he feels compelled to hit

the ground running each and every morning with the notion that if what he helps to accomplish

enables a cancer patient, for example, to hold down enough food to keep them alive for another

week, he has achieved something both noble and entirely worthwhile. He also emphasized that

for all the risk involved, there is a human element that propels his own sense of justice and

reward.

Any time that students and professionals can come together around a progressive, controversial

topic that has tangible implications within the city around us, the whole community benefits, and

this panel was an outstanding success by that measure. The Business Law Society would like to

thank those students who participated as well as the panelists whom made the event possible.