SUPERVISORS CHOOSE COMPASSION

A 4-1 vote will set up an ID card system for medical marijuana
patients in Orange County.

From one perspective it was unremarkable. A state law, Senate Bill
420, set up a voluntary identification card program for medical
marijuana patients as part of the implementation of the Compassionate
Use Act, California's medical marijuana law approved by voters as
Proposition 215 in 1996, and directed county health agencies to
handle the initial screening process. Since counties are legally
subdivisions of state government, county supervisors had little
choice but to approve a program under which the county Health Care
Agency could do just that.

However, more than 10 years after voters approved allowing patients
with a valid recommendation from a licensed physician to use
marijuana medicinally, aspects of the issue remain contentious in
some quarters, and the Orange County Board of Supervisors examined it
carefully before voting 4-1 Tuesday to go ahead with a program, to be
implemented in 120 days.

They held a long public hearing in April and another one Tuesday
before the vote, taking statements from patients, doctors, activists
and others -- including the District Attorney's Office -- in favor of
delaying and one other lonely foe of any such program.

Arguments can be made for delaying.

The federal government still has marijuana on Schedule I under the
Controlled Substances Act, meaning under federal law any use (medical
or otherwise), possession or production is strictly prohibited. San
Diego County has resisted implementing SB420 to the point of
appealing a court ruling dismissing its challenge to Prop. 215 as
invalid because it conflicts with federal law. That appeal has little
chance of succeeding, but who knows.

An identification-card program also will not solve other problems
that have cropped up, such as whether dispensaries should be allowed,
how they should be regulated, and what kinds of production and
distribution methods are legally permissible.

Supervisor Pat Bates raised questions about dispensaries. Board
Chairman Chris Norby, who is to be commended along with Supervisor
Bill Campbell for taking the lead in this issue, noted that this was
a separate issue but agreed to put the matter on the agenda soon.
Supervisor John Moorlach had concerns about penalties if ID cards
were abused, and Supervisor Bates raised the question of legal
residency in the country for cardholders. Those issues will be
addressed in final language setting up the program.

In the end, however, all the supervisors but Janet Nguyen (who is
mistaken in our view but consistent with her previous position) voted
to approve an ID card program for medical marijuana patients. This is
significant because some patients who have only a doctor's
recommendation have been arrested and/or have had their medicine
confiscated, often precipitating an expensive sojourn in court.

In most counties with an ID-card program the police leave
medical-marijuana patients alone, which is the whole idea behind Prop. 215.