MEDICAL MARIJUANA OUT OF REACH IN VENTURA COUNTY

Officials Stall On Program While Legal Challenges Resolved

It's been 15 months since California's counties were given the OK to
roll out a state-mandated medical marijuana identification card
program, and so far two-dozen counties have done so.

Ventura County isn't among them.

Legal wrangling over the law prompted the county to put a halt to
creating its own program.

"We decided to take a prudent and practical approach to this," Public
Health Director Linda Henderson said. "We're waiting until all legal
issues are resolved."

The county started working on a local identification card program in
July, when California's Department of Health Services approved such
programs. The cards are applied for and processed on the county level
but issued by the state.

But work stopped when San Diego County sued the health services
director and the state.

Two other counties, Merced and San Bernardino, joined the suit, which
challenged the law requiring the identification cards as well as the
voter-approved Compassionate Use Act of 1996 that allows people with a
number of ailments to grow and use marijuana for medical purposes.

Earlier this month, a San Diego Superior Court judge shot down the
counties' lawsuit. Judge William R. Nevitt Jr. ruled that counties
would not be breaking federal laws by giving out state identification
cards.

Medical marijuana users in California can still be prosecuted under
federal drug laws.

On Tuesday, San Diego county officials decided to appeal Nevitt's ruling.

That means Ventura County's medical marijuana users will have a longer
wait for the cards, which allow qualified patients and caregivers to
possess, grow, transport and use medical marijuana.

Lisa Cordova Schwarz, a retired nurse and executive director of the
Ventura County Alliance for Medical-Marijuana Patients, chastised the
county for not setting up a program yet.

"That's just a cop-out," Schwarz said of the county's approach. "Every
month, more counties are starting their ID programs."

Henderson said the county didn't want to start a program only to have
it shut down.

San Luis Obispo County started its program Thursday.

The first applicant arrived at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, armed with a
completed application downloaded from the county's Web site, his
personal ID and his physician's recommendation letter. A digital photo
was taken of the applicant and his information entered into a
computer. The entire process took 15 minutes, said Kathleen O'Neill,
San Luis Obispo County's Community Health Services manager.

Two more applicants came in on Friday. It took the county about six
months to get the program off the ground.

O'Neill said county officials felt the implementation was a "clear
state mandate," and, therefore, they proceeded despite the San Diego
case.

"We're not taking a judgmental position of whether this is a good idea
or not," O'Neill said. "We are just following the state law. We are
also not judging the applicants who walk into Public Health. We are
simply doing our job."

O'Neill had sent a letter to all of the police chiefs in the county
explaining the program and the county's protocols.

In Kern County, 74 cards have been issued to patients and two cards
have been issued to caregivers since the program started in January,
County Health Officer and Director of Public Health Dr. Babatunde
Jinadu said.

"It's going well with us," he said. "We have not had any problems with it."

Other counties that have implemented the program include Contra Costa,
Imperial, Riverside, San Francisco and Santa Barbara.

Statewide, 7,830 cards have been issued. Cardholder information is
entered into a statewide database so law enforcement can verify
whether or not a card is legitimate.