SACRAMENTO COUNTY TO CONSIDER MEDICAL MARIJUANA ID CARDS

It's a fight that's been settled in 40 of California's 58 counties,
but Sacramento County isn't one of them.

And Tuesday, when the Board of Supervisors takes up the issue of
medical marijuana ID cards, the reason for that will become clear. The
supervisors are divided on a central question:

Should Sacramento County follow the will of the people of California,
which approved using marijuana for medicinal purposes in a statewide
ballot? Or should the county yield to the federal government, which
hasn't authorized its use?

"It is well beyond the time when Sacramento County should comply with
state law," Supervisor Roger Dickinson wrote in a letter to his colleagues.

Responded Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan: "Possession and use of
marijuana is still a federal crime. As long as it's a federal crime,
I just can't do anything that facilitates its use."

She also questioned the use of the phrase "medical marijuana."

"I don't think there is a thing - medical marijuana. There is just
marijuana," MacGlashan said. "It's still a federal crime to process,
use or sell it."

Lanette Davies sees things differently.

She became a medical marijuana activist two years ago, after Stanford
University doctors recommended her daughter try cannabis products to
ease her pain.

Davies said her daughter, Brittany, a 17-year-old Sacramento area high
school student, suffers from a rare bone disease.

"By the time she was 15 she actually asked me if she could die,"
Davies said.

Davies said patients like her daughter, who uses cannabis creams and
food products, are looking to ease pain, not get high.

"These are sick people who are looking for comfort from their pain,"
said Davies, who started the group Crusaders 4 Patients Rights. "They
aren't looking for a joint, they are looking for relief."

Similar accounts helped lead to the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996
- - setting California in conflict with the federal government.

The board will take the issue up at 3 p.m. Tuesday in its chambers at
700 H St. - and the outcome is unclear.

Yolo, El Dorado and Placer counties already have implemented medical
marijuana ID programs.

Dickinson said issuing the cards "does not imply approval of the
nonmedical use of marijuana."

Advocates say the program helps law enforcement by identifying those
with a legitimate need for a pot prescription.

"We hope that the county will do the right thing and move forward,"
said Aaron Smith, the California organizer for the Marijuana Policy
Project.

"We've seen the program be successful. It is something that is
intended (for law enforcement)."

Those who don't favor the program, however, include Sheriff John
McGinness.

"This conduct is still prohibited by federal law," said McGinness.

He said those who want to change the law should take the fight to the
federal level because "federal law trumps state law."

The county's public health officer, Dr. Glennah Trochet, has advised
against the program in previous years and more recently said she
doesn't have any knowledge of medicinal effects of marijuana.