Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

In order to answer your question, you need to understand the law surrounding medical marijuana use. Marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, so if you have neighbor problems, your wife's prescription is not going to get you off the hook. California has two major provisions, the Compassionate Use Act (CUA) and the Medical Marijuana Program (MMP).

The CUA was established by a voter initiative, and did not contain limits on the amount of marijuna plants a patient could possess. The CUA decriminalized marijuana possession at the state level, but did not provide immunity from arrest. This meant a patient could still be arrested, but had a defense in court. It had other problems, however, such as the fact that it did not decriminalize transportation, which was a problem when patients were transporting marijuana home from a dispensary in their own cars. To provide guidance, and fill in some of the gaps, the California Legislature passed the MMP.

The MMP established a limit on the number of plants that a patient could have. The MMP limited the amount of marijuana plants that a patient could have to six mature, or 12 immature plants per patient. (Health & Saf. Code, sec. 11362.77 subd. (a).)

In January of this year, the California Supreme Court unanimously decided a criminal case called People v. Kelly. The court ruled that the portions of the MMP that conflicted with the CUA, including the limitation on the amount of plants a patient could own, was unconstitutional because the Legislature did not have the constitutional authority to amend a statute created by voter initiative. In other words, the CUA could only be amended by another voter initiative. As it currently stands, the limits of section 11362.77 have been voided.

The amount then, is more problematic, because the CUA did not contain a limit, but only used the word "reasonable" for the patient's medical purposes. Arguably, this means a jury will decide what is reasonable, rather than a bright line rule set forth in a statute, for the time being.

I personally expect this issue to be addressed on the next ballot.