





Photo: Eugene Davidovich

​San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’s war on medical marijuana patients and providers suffered another crushing defeat Thursday afternoon, as activist Eugene Davidovich was acquitted by a jury of all charges stemming from his arrest last year as part of Operation Endless Summer.

A Navy veteran with an honorable discharge, Davidovich started a legal medical marijuana collective in San Diego, carefully abiding by state law. Eugene was arrested in February 2009 by San Diego narcotics officers for providing another legal patient with medical marijuana. He told Toke of the Town that the chief investigative officer in his case testified on the stand that the officer based his expert testimony on “medical marijuana training” on a handout from something called the Narcotic Educational Foundation of America, “Drug Abuse Education Provider of the California Narcotic Officers’ Association.” Use of Marijuana As A “Medicine” ( In these “training” materials, titled PDF ) (the quotes are theirs), we learn immediately — in the first sentence! — how these guys roll. Davidovich was facing four felony charges and the very real possibility of a long prison sentence.

“Marijuana, a plant from the cannabis family, is illegal and highly psychoactive,” we are given to believe. No mention of the fact that medical marijuana use is legal in California, and has been for 14 years now — and this, in materials used to educate law enforcement officers.

With training like that, it’s no wonder these clueless morons chose to spend hundreds of man-hours and tens of thousands of dollars prosecuting a legal medical marijuana patient and provider, even as budget-challenged San Diego County is desperately looking for ways to cut spending.