POT-LAWSUIT VENUE TO CHANGE

S.B. County: Its Counsel Says It Will Take Its Medical-Marijuana
Challenge to State Court.

San Bernardino County's lawyers are reworking a legal challenge to
California's medical-marijuana laws after San Diego County withdrew
its federal lawsuit and refiled it in state court. Stan Lim / The
Press-Enterprise Jim Nelson, of Wildomar, shows his support for the
legalization of medical marijuana during a protest outside the County
Government Center in San Bernardino.

County Counsel Ron Reitz said Tuesday the county is close to
completing its lawsuit and will soon file it in San Diego County
Superior Court, where it is expected to be combined with that county's
legal challenge.

Meanwhile, dozens of medical-marijuana supporters Tuesday protested
San Bernardino County's action and urged supervisors to drop the
planned lawsuit.

"We are talking about sick patients and not criminals," said Don
Duncan, of Americans for Safe Access.

Supervisors last month voted to join their counterparts in San Diego
in seeking to overturn the state's Compassionate Use Act, approved by
voters in 1996, and a 2003 law that requires counties to issue
medical-marijuana identification cards.

The 1996 law allows patients with a physician's recommendation to
transport and use marijuana to treat the symptoms of illnesses such as
cancer, glaucoma and chronic pain.

But supervisors said federal drug provisions conflict with the state's
laws, leaving local law enforcement in a bind over which to enforce.

In a December memo, Sheriff Gary Penrod urged supervisors to join in
San Diego County's lawsuit.

Legal experts, however, said the counties faced an uphill battle in
court. Counties can't sue the state in federal court over a
constitutional issue, according to David B. Cruz, a constitutional-law
expert at the University of Southern California Law School.

Medical-marijuana supporters said clarification is needed between
state and federal laws but taking the matter to court is not the way
to go.

Filing a lawsuit only hurts those who rely on medical marijuana to
ease pain, said supporters, who protested with signs, chants and a
bullhorn outside the County Government Center.

Alcina Talbott, 43, of Crestline, said she relies on medical marijuana
to treat chronic pain. As a trauma nurse at Arrowhead Regional Medical
Center, she was struck in the face by a patient and suffered severe
neck and brain injuries. She said she is fully disabled and cannot
work.

"I really didn't want (medical marijuana) to work," she said. But with
it, "I have a life now with my children."

Alexandra Talbott, 12, told supervisors that the drug has given her
mother the energy to be a mom again.

"Medical marijuana is not cruel," Alexandra said.