S.F. BOARD TO VOTE TODAY ON PLAN FOR POT-USER IDS

Supervisor Urges Cards For Patients

SAN FRANCISCO - In the latest effort to legitimize the use of medicinal
marijuana, San Francisco supervisors are expected to approve legislation
today that would allow city health officials to issue identification cards
to qualified users and their caregivers.

Under the proposal by Supervisor Mark Leno, the Department of Public Health
or a nonprofit group would issue photo identification cards to anyone who
qualifies under Proposition 215, the 1996 state medical marijuana
initiative, which allows ill Californians to consume and cultivate pot with
the permission of their doctors.

From the day the measure passed, some California law enforcement agencies
and politicians have criticized Proposition 215 as ambiguous and a
violation of federal law. State Attorney General Bill Lockyer supports a
bill making its way through the Legislature that would identify legitimate
users while making it easier for police to crack down on frauds.

Under that bill, there would be a registry of patients whose doctors
recommend medicinal marijuana, said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Lockyer.

Leno believes that his proposal will essentially do the same thing but on
the local level.

"Many groups came to me expressing a desire to be able to recommend,
provide and use cannabis without fear of harassment or persecution," Leno
said. "The police also asked for a way to distinguish legitimate users from
illicit ones."

The cards would be good for two years. Recipients would have to pay what
Leno described as a modest fee. To protect confidentiality, the person's
name and address would not be on the card. Instead, each card would contain
a "unique serial number" corresponding to the person's California driver's
license, state ID card or passport.

If Leno's measure is approved by the Board of Supervisors, San Francisco
would become one of the few cities in California that offer identification
cards to marijuana users.

"This pre-identifies people who have an affirmative defense, meaning they
don't deserve to be prosecuted by the police under the state health and
safety code," said Mendocino County Sheriff Tony Craver.

Mendocino County's program was one of the models for Leno's proposal, along
with a similar plan in the Humboldt County town of Arcata. Already, the
measure has received the support of two groups that dispense medicinal
marijuana: the Cannabis Helping Alleviate Medical Problems center and the
San Francisco Patients Resource Center.

"The legislation is going to help patients be more protected and enable
Proposition 215 to work without further harassments to patients," said Jeff
Jones of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative. "Even now, San Francisco
patients are being visited by police and having their plants ripped up
because police do not recognize their doctors' note."

The measure has also obtained the support of District Attorney Terence
Hallinan and the Department of Public Health.

But not everyone is convinced that an identification program for medicinal
pot users will help in the enforcement of Proposition 215.

San Francisco police spokesman Sherman Ackerson questioned how an ID card
would stop abuse.

"The department supports the notion of people needing marijuana for medical
reasons," Ackerson said. "But Police Chief Fred Lau hasn't really been
invited or asked to sit down and work out these details, and it's his view
that we need to sit down with city officials and work out the details of
this because there are . . . abuses that can happen with this thing."

For example, Ackerson said, "What if a 15-year-old has this card? Is this
for personal consumption, or will we have dealers with these cards?"

As drafted, the identification card program does not deal with questions
about age or how much marijuana a person could have in his or her possession.

But Leno's proposal does call for a fine of as much as $250 and three
months in jail for anyone falsifying, forging or altering a document to
support his or her request for an ID card.

Leno's bill will help both patients and police, said Wayne Justmann of the
San Francisco Patients Resource Center.

"If I have this card in hand, and I am stopped and have cannabis, the card
should let the police know I should be allowed to go on my way," Justmann
said.

But Michael Bellefountaine, a member of ACT UP San Francisco, is not
convinced that police would let cardholders go on their way as Justmann
suggests.

"ACT UP is worried that this card program will herald a new era of pot
arrests," Bellefountaine wrote in the December issue of Magnus, a gay
magazine. "Differentiating between legitimate and illegitimate users is the
real purpose of this card, not the safe procurement of the product for
people who need it."

Bellefountaine, whose group distributed medical cannabis, also questioned
why the city needs to charge a fee.

"It doesn't seem right that a person who can afford the card could smoke
pot outside the Opera House, but a homeless person who couldn't afford the
card would be harassed for smoking on the street," he wrote.

A fee is part of the proposal, but Leno's supporters say the Department of
Public Health could offer free or discounted cards to those who cannot
afford them.