If you are an afficiando of medical marijuana law, perhaps you know that the situation has gone from really strange to total chaos. There was a conservative backlash going on during the past few months with Mendocino County's new DA and Sheriff backing an attempt to destroy the county's barely reasonable medical limits with something called Measure B. It may have passed, we're awaiting final results of the vote count.

But that no longer matters because People v. Kelly overturned the statute that the limits were based on, as unconsitutional. At the moment the limits are whatever you can convince the jury is reasonable. That means that for practicaly purposes Measure B is meaningless, as were recent attempts to roll back Del Norte County's fairly decent limits.

Two things are obvious: 1 - Each county needs bright line prima facie prosecution limits, and those should probably be something along the line of 100 square feet of indoor canopy, 6 mature outdoor plants, and 3 pounds of bud. Up to that point, no prosecution; over it, lets see case by case. There is no movement to establish something this reasonable, or anything like it.

2- The jury instructions for medical marijuana cases are a mess. They were a mess before Kelly, and now they are a real mess. I was one of a group of lawyers who met in SF yesterday to see about coming up with some unified suggestions for changing the standard jury instructions in medical marijuana cases. Defense lawyers are individualists, their practices are mostly solo and they depend on a strong sense that they are right. Not the greatest formula for a successful meeting, and it turned out to be quite chaotic - reminded me of Earth First ! strategy meetings I attended 18 years ago. But we got something done, and will probably succeed in our mission.

On the way back I stopped at Patronas in Ukiah. Mixed review this time. Food was great (sausage pizza, bubbly) service was not. This was the second time I have come in to see a room of empty tables only to be told there are none available and I'd have to sit at the bar. Last time i didn't have time, this time I gave it a shot. Bar service is poor - I never got bread, for instance - but the irritating thing is that some of the tables for 2 stayed empty the entire time I was there. They are empty when I arrived and they were empty when I left. So, why wasn't I sitting at one? I've asked the restaurant that, too. Both times the person greeting me at the door was a man, maybe he's the owner and has his own system? Right now I'm dropped Patrona's rank from "must eat there if you can" to "a good choice along with the Thai restaurant and the Japanese restaurant."

PS for you trivia fans, one sentence in this posting echoes a famous line from The Mummy. Extra points for the first person to tell me which one it is.