MEDICAL POT SUPPORTERS FACE A HIT

Extension: Riverside County Supervisors Say They Need More Time to
Create Dispensary Rules.

Medical marijuana advocates oppose a proposal to extend Riverside
County's moratorium on pot dispensaries until August 2007. County
supervisors are scheduled Tuesday to consider extending the temporary
ban, which has been in place since August 23. It is set to expire today.

The extension of 16 months and 15 days would be the longest allowed
by law if adopted by the supervisors, Senior County Planner Mark Balys said.

Balys said planners need more time to formulate standards for
dispensaries in unincorporated county areas.

Lanny Swerdlow, of the advocacy group Marijuana Anti-Prohibition
Project, said he could understand if county officials needed another
month or two.

"But 16 months? It seems like they want to ban medical-marijuana
dispensaries," Swerdlow said.

In 1996, California voters approved the Compassionate Use Act, which
allows patients with a physician's recommendation to transport and
use marijuana to treat the symptoms of illness.

State law also requires counties to issue identification cards to
medical-marijuana users. Riverside County began issuing the cards December 1.

Neighboring San Bernardino and San Diego counties have filed a
lawsuit in state court seeking to overturn the Compassionate Use Act.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer has said there is no legal reason for
the courts to consider the lawsuit.

Riverside County has not supported court action, but supervisors
still want the differences between state and federal law clarified.
Federal law does not protect medical-marijuana users from
prosecution. Earlier this month, federal agents raided a house in Sky
Valley, in the Coachella Valley, where a man said he was growing
marijuana for a dispensary in Palm Desert.

Several cities are looking to the county to set the groundwork for
marijuana dispensaries, Supervisor Roy Wilson said.

"The sooner there are clear guidelines, the better off everyone will
be," he said.

Supervisor Jeff Stone, a pharmacist who has often criticized the use
of medical marijuana, said he's keeping an open mind. Stone said that
in April he plans to attend a continuing-education forum on medical
marijuana at his own expense to learn more about its potential
medicinal merits.

"But it does not negate the conflict between federal and state law," Stone said.