When you go to law school their first, and most important, task is to teach you to "think like a lawyer." If you don't do that, you have no future in the law. Ok, but how do lawyer's think? I'm not sure about all of us, but I like to work over a case looking at it from all angles until I can find (if I'm lucky) something that makes the case a winner.

Here's how I fixed the broken water line. First you should know that on the ranch our water lines run long distances, and it is up to us to maintain them. The previous owner (PO) of the ranch did a lot of water line running, but he used black plastic pipe to get from the meter to the house. Over the decades this has proven to be a bad decision. Every year or two we find new "springs" in the lawn or driveway and these springs invariably turn out to be from breaks in the old water line. I've replaced about 50' of it with new water pipe (Schedule 40, for those who like to be technical). But recently a spring developed right in the driveway, on the far side where the old pipe comes up from the county road. I know it crosses under the driveway, but I don't know where the ends of the crossing are, nor what kind of pipe PO used to get under the road. I do know that he ran a hose back under the driveway to water a garden. So we have two places where water goes under the drive. The main line, and a spur.

I decided that the hose must already go through a metal pipe thick enough to protect it from the weight of the driveway traffic, since it had never sprung a leak. That meant that if I could find it I could run the new pipe through the same conduit and would not have to dig up any more of the driveway. Fine. But where was the hose? My wife and I recalled where it came out and a few minutes digging around turned it up. Then I dug down and found the metal conduit. Eyeballing across the driveway I decided where it must come out on the other side and dug there too. Hard work because the driveway is gravel over clay and rocks. But I found it. The end was completely clogged with dirt, and at first I couldn't even find the hose. The hose was bent way down and smashed flat, but I dug up a couple of feet of it and pulled it out of the pipe. Then I used a power nozzle on my new hose and blasted the dirt out of the pipe. That was fun. Good. Now I had a clear conduit under the driveway. Trouble was that it came out about 30 feet from the nearest pipe that ran to the house, which meant a lot more digging on the house side. It was also about 15' from the water line on the meter side of the driveway.

One thing at a time, I decided. First I would dig a ditch from the broken pipe to the metal conduit, then I'd worry about connecting it back the main line by the house. So I dug about 15 feet to where I thought the old water line must be. No old water line showed up. So I dug up the new spring, which created a wonderful fountain once the dirt and rocks were taken off the pipe. The pipe was about 6" down under the driveway. I dug backwards from the break towards the meter, and so towards my ditch to the new route. About 1' beyond my ditch and about 1' deeper than I imagined, I found the line and connected my ditch to it. Now I was set to route the new line from a point before the break, down to the new driveway crossing.

But wait, while uncovering the break I found an old patch I had put in last time it broke. I had covered the pipe with boards to protect it. Pulling the boards up I discovered that the old line was black plastic pipe about 6' into the driveway, and then it connected to a metal pipe. A metal pipe! That meant that I didn't have to reroute the water line, I could just fix the leak and run some conduit for the 6' that was now unprotected, and my entire route under the driveway would be protected. I fixed the leak by having the black plastic pipe replaced by Schedule 40 pipe, ran the conduit and there it was, all fixed.

What's the lesson here? You have to start somewhere, but you also have to be flexible enough to change your plans even after you have dug a long ditch, if you find facts that warrant it. That's the way I deal with cases. I poke around, I consider one line of attack and then another, and I don't mind changing my approach even if I've got some work invested in the first approach, if the new approach seems better. Its not an effecient, or cost-effective means of working. But it is more successful than sticking with your first idea even if a better one comes along. I do flat fee work mainly, so the client doesn't have to pay for each wrong turn or blind alley the case may take. That way I don't feel hesitant about taking up new ideas.
- posted by Eugene @ 4:39 PM

 
We are entering interesting times for medical marijuana users in Caifornia. The Gov just signed SB420 (really) into law and it will take effect on Jan 1, 2004. It will make sweeping changes in medical marijuana use and prosecution of those who claim the protection of the medical marijuana statutes. I'm putting together a workshop on it for the Hemp Festival next weekend, but right now I want to say that if you use medical marijuana then on Jan 1, 2004 you need to have one of the following things:
1. A county or city government which has enacted medical marijuana guidelines with limits you are aware of, or
2. A doctor who has recorded the amount of medical marijuana you use or that is approved (see below), or
3. You are going to fall under the state guidelines of 8 oz & 6 mature or 12 immature plants.

In Humboldt county that might mean that you must cut back from 99 plants to 12 plants.

Regarding the doctor and you: if you use 2.15 oz a week then you use about 7 pounds a year and that's what the Feds give their
(few) patients. If you decide not to alarm the doctor and under-report your use with one of those "Oh I just use an oz a month or so. I don't really smoke much, you know, only when I get really painful knee joints, yada, yada" raps and then the cops find you with your real supply of 4 pounds, you are probably going to be in big trouble. Unnecessary big trouble which could be avoided by telling the doctor the truth to begin with, eg you smoke a ton of weed, you do it every day, and that's how come you can sleep at night and move around during the day. (All examples hypothetical, your case may vary, results not typical, professional user on closed course, don't try this at home, this is not legal advice for that consult your legal advisor, and all the other disclaimers you can imagine).

You can find the text of SB 420 by doing a search for it at the California Government website. Its got some really interesting stuff in it. Not least of which is that it invokes the Tenth Amendment, setting up a challenge to Bush and Ashcroft's claim that the Feds are the only ones who can regulate marijuana.
- posted by Eugene @ 4:39 PM