CARD TO LEGITIMIZE MEDICAL POT USERS

Group Learns Specifics of Forming Cooperatives

CATHEDRAL CITY -- California still hasn't issued identification cards
to the state's medical marijuana users, but pro-pot activists are
already gearing up to form cooperatives to grow the drug.

United by a desire to use medicinal marijuana without police
interference, approximately 35 people heard the specifics of starting
or joining a cooperative to simplify the process of getting pot.

While smokers would have to wait until the identification cards are
implemented to prove they have prescriptions for the pot, Lanny
Swerdlow said Sunday at the monthly Marijuana Anti-Prohibition
Project/ American Harm Reduction Association meeting that those
interested should sign up now.

That way they can plant their own marijuana seeds the day they have
their cards in hand.

"It's way more involved than one might think it is," Swerdlow said to
the group, many of whom smoke marijuana to alleviate chronic pain from
serious illness or injury. "But this is about medicine, this is about
making people feel better."

Swerdlow also explained how legal pot users can form growing
cooperatives to gain safer and more convenient access to the drug.

Senate Bill 420 of 2003 requires the state Department of Health to
issue voluntary identification cards so pot patients can avoid being
arrested for possessing marijuana.

Swerdlow said because of the California budget crisis, the cards were
pushed to the wayside. But they're coming -- maybe as early as
November, he said.

Swerdlow and fellow activists say they have been arrested for growing
or carrying the drug.

Later, when a judge sees the prescription, the charges are dropped.
But the damage has already been done.

"It turns your life upside down," he said of getting
arrested.

State-issued cards identifying users as legitimate medicinal marijuana
consumers should stop the arrests, he said.

Then groups of about 10 card holders can begin a growing
operation.

Cardholders will also be able to band together in cooperatives to grow
the drug -- reducing the need to buy pot from distant farms or
disreputable street dealers.

But not all medical marijuana users expect to join cooperatives.

Ricardo Garcia of Palm Desert said at a monthly rate of between $100
and $200, the co-ops are still too expensive for him, although it
would be more convenient than growing his own.

Twelve years after Garcia broke a vertebrae in his lower spine on a
plumbing site, he still leans heavily on a cane.

Garcia says he would prefer medicinal marijuana treatment to the
alternative, having doctors insert metal rods into his body.

"I said no -- I'll smoke and I'll pray," Garcia said. "It's out of my
way and it's expensive (to buy from a farm), but it's some of the best
quality (and) I'm in chronic pain."