COUNTY WON'T JOIN MARIJUANA SUIT

San Diego Superior Court Rules County Is Too Late To Be Included

Riverside County will not join a legal challenge to California's
medical marijuana law, scheduled to be heard Nov. 16 in San Diego
Superior Court.

The county Board of Supervisors voted earlier this month to join the
suit filed by San Diego, San Bernardino and Merced counties.

But the court ruled Friday that Riverside would not be allowed to
join the case.

"The court felt it was too late to intervene in the pending action in
San Diego," said Pam Walls, assistant county counsel.

The suit is aimed at resolving the conflict between federal law,
which bans any use or cultivation of marijuana, and California's
10-year-old law allowing medical use of the drug for patients with a
doctor's recommendation.

The counties filed the suit to avoid implementing state law, which
requires them to issue medical marijuana identification cards to
qualified patients. Getting a card is voluntary for patients.

Riverside County began issuing the ID cards last December. To date,
363 cards have been issued, and four applications have been denied,
said Victoria Jauregui Burns, chief of the county card program.

The county supervisors also passed a ban on medical marijuana
dispensaries in unincorporated areas when they voted to join the suit.

It is unclear what impact, if any, a court decision that supports
state law might have on dispensaries in the Coachella Valley - one in
Palm Desert and two in Palm Springs - or other parts of Riverside
County, said Walls.

"We would have to review that with the board," she said.

Americans for Safe Access and the California Chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, both medical marijuana
advocacy groups, and the American Civil Liberties Union are arguing
against the civil suit.

While both sides are looking to the court to untangle the
federal-state conflict, Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for
Safe Access, said a quick resolution is unlikely.