YOLO ADOPTS MEDICAL POT ID PROGRAM

But Dissenters In 3-2 Vote Say It Puts Police In Tough Position

The Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted this week to implement the
statewide Medical Marijuana ID card program.

The program is voluntary for medical marijuana patients living in
California. Advocates say the card protects patients from unnecessary
detention, arrest or seizure of their medicine.

"For me, it represented a vote for compassion vs. criminalization,"
said county Supervisor Mariko Yamada.

Tuesday night's vote was split; Yamada favored the program, along
with Supervisors Helen Thomson and Mike McGowan. Supervisors Matt
Rexroad and Duane Chamberlain voted against implementing the program.

At the board meeting, county District Attorney Jeff Reisig and
Sheriff Ed Prieto argued against the program, saying it will put law
enforcement agencies in an awkward position.

While medical marijuana use was approved by California voters in
1996, possession of the drug is still a federal offense.

Rexroad said there's a troubling conflict between federal and state
law on marijuana use.

The marijuana ID card program "ends up putting all of our law
enforcement officers at risk," Rexroad said. "They have to decide how
to interpret the law and whether to cite somebody or not. To me, it's
not good public policy and it needs to be resolved by Congress."

Thomson agreed that local and state law enforcement officers could be
put "between a rock and a hard place because of a conflict between
federal and state law. But I follow the state law, and the state law
says we can do this."

The supervisor, who is a trained nurse, introduced a number of pain
management bills while she was a member of the state Assembly and has
strong feelings about the issue.

"We are very puritanical as a society about people in pain, and we
give very mixed messages," she said. "We don't get terminally ill
cancer patients into pain management and hospice care soon enough.
For those (for) whom marijuana is a useful drug, I don't see the
issue. I see it as compassionate and the right thing to do."

The ID card program has met considerable resistance and even legal
challenges. The state Department of Health Services briefly suspended
the program in July 2005 after the Supreme Court ruled that Congress
can ban the use of marijuana, even in states that have approved it
for medicinal use.

The program was reinstated after the state attorney general said that
operating the program would not aid and abet marijuana users in
committing a federal crime. Applications were modified to let
patients know that information they provide could be used in a
federal prosecution.

In January 2006, San Diego County filed suit, saying the state didn't
have the authority to make counties issue the IDs. A San Diego
Superior Court judge rejected San Diego County's claim last December,
saying that refusing to implement the ID program violates state law.

Yamada said the ID cards will benefit local and state police.

"I believe this will actually assist them in focusing increasingly
dwindling law enforcement resources on other illegal criminal
activity," she said.

Rexroad worries about the legal uncertainties.

"It's very convenient to say that our state law governs the issue,
but tell that to a federal judge," he said.

While state law mandates that counties make the program available,
only about half of counties statewide have complied. Placer and El
Dorado Counties are in the process of creating programs for
consideration, while Sacramento County has made very little progress,
according to Safe Access Now, an advocacy group for medical marijuana patients.

"I hope the decision in Yolo County sends a message to surrounding
counties that it's time to implement this law," said Aaron Smith,
statewide coordinator for Safe Access Now. "Patients have been
waiting far too long."

Thomson praised Yolo health officer Bette Hinton for devising the
county's ID program.

"A lot of (county health officers) are ducking the issue, but she
decided this is the right thing to do and she took it on," Thomson said.

The state Department of Health Services has issued 10,727 IDs
statewide, according to a spokeswoman.