A PRESCRIPTION FOR COMPASSION

County supervisors should approve ID cards for medical marijuana patients.

The county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the charged
issue of having the Orange County Health Care Agency issue voluntary
identification cards to medicinal users of marijuana, in compliance
with state law.

The supervisors should approve the program for several reasons. The
first, of course, is that they are required by state law to do so.
One might have argued that things should have been set up
differently, with effective power lodged at the most-local level and
flowing upward toward the state government. However, under California
law counties are legally subdivisions of the state and are legally
obliged to follow mandates of the state government.

In 2004 the Legislature passed Senate Bill 420, which set up a
statewide voluntary ID card program for medical marijuana patients,
and mandated county health departments to implement the program.

For anyone concerned with respect for the law, it's a no-brainer. At
the supervisors meeting three months ago when the issue was first
broached, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas argued against an ID card
program, claiming it would increase the demand for marijuana and make
it easy for recreational users to get access to the drug. The
arguments Mr. Rackauckas made might have been appropriate against
passing Proposition 215, which exempts patients with a licensed
physician's recommendation and their caregivers from laws against
possessing, using, growing and transporting marijuana. But California
voters heard those arguments in 1996 and passed Prop. 215. The
apocalyptic predictions of opponents have not come to pass - in fact,
surveys conducted by the state Attorney General's Office show that
marijuana use among teenagers has declined, and faster in California
than nationally. The arrest rates for marijuana possession have
stayed virtually flat since 1996. The 1999 Institute of Medicine
report commissioned by then-drug "czar" Gen. Barry McCaffrey also
showed that marijuana use did not increase in states that permit medicinal use.

Having the county Health Care Agency issue ID cards to legitimate
medical marijuana patients will not solve all the problems the state
has experienced (often due to official foot-dragging) in implementing
Prop. 215. But it will simplify matters for patients and police.
Police officers who encounter somebody in possession of marijuana who
has a valid ID card will know that the county has checked out the
physician's recommendation and that they should leave that person
alone. Without such a card the issue is more confused.

With an ID card system police resources will be freed to go after
real crime rather than spend valuable time hassling seriously ill
people or calling doctors to see if a recommendation is valid. Any
possession of marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but state
officials are bound by the state constitution to uphold state law in
the face of apparent conflicts.

San Diego County has filed a lawsuit to invalidate California's
medical marijuana law on the grounds that it conflicts with federal
law, but a district court threw the case out. San Diego is appealing,
but if there were any real chance of such a suit succeeding, federal
drug warriors and their allies would have pursued it in 1996 when
Prop. 215, the Compassionate Use Act, was passed.

State law, compassion and common sense all argue for a unanimous vote
today in favor of a medical marijuana ID program.