MEDICAL POT ID PROGRAM GETS EL DORADO OK

The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to implement
an identification card program to allow patients who have a
physician's recommendation to use marijuana for medical purposes to
easily identify themselves to law enforcement officials.

El Dorado is the 33rd California county to approve the program, said
Aaron Smith, statewide coordinator for the medical marijuana advocacy
group Safe Access Now.

The program is required under a state law passed in 2003 to clarify
Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative approved by California voters
allowing medical marijuana use.

Implementation had been stalled by lawsuits brought by some counties
concerned about the conflict with federal law.

Gayle Erbe-Hamlin, county public health director, said the program
would be available on a voluntary basis to patients and caregivers,
who would apply annually for the cards. She said the county would
maintain the minimum amount of information required by the state and
at the end of each year, the information would be destroyed.

Erbe-Hamlin said she would return with a resolution setting the fee
for the card.

On top of the $66 the state charges, she recommended a $59 fee to
cover the county's administrative costs, for a total fee of $125.
Fifty percent of the cost would be waived for MediCal patients, she said.

Nikos Leverenz, director of Drug Policy Alliance in Sacramento, urged
the board to approve the program, calling it a "win-win-win
situation" benefiting the patient, law enforcement, and state and
local health departments.

The program, he said, would provide health officials with more
information about the number of patients using medical marijuana and
the conditions for which they use it.

Undersheriff Fred Kollar said the Sheriff's Department has worked
with various groups regarding medical marijuana issues.

"We support what's being proposed today," he said. "It should make
our lives easier."

Board members stressed that their votes to implement the
identification card program was not an endorsement of medical marijuana use.

"I'm supporting the program only to support the Sheriff's
Department," Supervisor Rusty Dupray said.

The board agreed to evaluate the program's cost and effectiveness at
the end of its first year.

In the area, Amador County has implemented the identification card
program, and Yolo County will begin issuing cards July 13, said Smith
of Safe Access Now.