ID CARD PLAN FOR MEDICAL POT STALLS

Funding Lags, And New State Law Orders County Program

San Diego's plan to develop an identification card program for medical
marijuana users may be abandoned before it gets started because of a
new state law that requires county governments provide the service.

The city's voluntary ID card program was meant to protect sick people
who use marijuana on a doctor's advice from being arrested by city
police.

The City Council approved the program in September, but it has been
stalled, partly because of a lack of funding, said City Councilwoman
Toni Atkins.

The Medical Cannabis Task Force, which the council created in May
2001, has been trying to raise the $20,000 to $25,000 it would cost to
set up an ID card program.

Ed Plank, the city manager's liaison to the council and the task
force, said potential donors have been identified.

Atkins, a lead advocate of the city ID card program, said it no longer
may be needed because a state law Gov. Gray Davis signed Oct. 12
requires the state Department of Health Services to establish a
statewide voluntary registry of medical marijuana users. Counties also
must set up a program to enroll medical marijuana users in the
registry and to issue state medical marijuana ID cards.

Like the city program, the state law is meant to protect medical
marijuana users from arrest.

"The onus is placed back on the county, which is where it should have
been since the get-go," Atkins said.

When the San Diego County Board of Supervisors wouldn't develop a
program to implement a medical marijuana initiative that voters
statewide approved in 1996, the city adopted the ID card program,
Atkins said. The measure, Proposition 215, was approved by 55.6
percent of voters statewide and 56.1 percent of voters in San Diego
County.

Steve McWilliams, a former task force member and medical marijuana
activist, said the city should continue its program because it is
unknown how long the state and county governments will take to
implement the new law.

City guidelines also are more lenient than the state law on the amount
of marijuana that patients and their caregivers can possess,
McWilliams said. The city guidelines allow adult patients, with a San
Diego County doctor's approval, to keep up to 1 pound of marijuana and
grow up to 24 plants. Caregivers can keep up to 2 pounds of marijuana
and grow up to 48 plants for as many as four patients.

The state law, Senate Bill 420 by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose,
allows patients and caregivers to keep no more than 8 ounces of
marijuana and six mature plants or 12 immature plants. It allows
patients and caregivers to keep higher amounts if a doctor says more
is needed. It also allows counties to adopt more lenient guidelines.

The law takes effect Jan. 1, but it sets no deadline for the
Department of Health Services to establish the statewide program, nor
does it set a deadline for counties to create the ID card program,
said Sue North, Vasconcellos' chief of staff.

San Diego's task force has yet to recommend whether the city should
proceed with its own program. Dale Kelly Bankhead, chairwoman of the
task force's legislative subcommittee, said she shares McWilliams'
concern that it could take the state and county "an extraordinary
amount of time" to implement the new law. If so, Bankhead said, the
city might want to proceed with its plan until the state and county
programs are ready.

The task force will make a recommendation after analyzing the new law,
Bankhead said.

County Supervisors Chairman Greg Cox said the county has yet to
determine how to handle the new law.

"We've got probably a couple of months to figure out the approach we
can take," Cox said.

Because the city of San Diego has done much of the work to establish
an ID card program, Cox said, "Our first call is going to be to the
city of San Diego, since they're already working on it, to see if they
want to do it for the rest of the county."

Atkins said she doesn't want the city running an ID card program for
the county.

The Board of Supervisors opposed the ID card legislation because of a
conflict between state and federal law on the medical use of
marijuana, Cox said.

Although the state ballot measure authorized the medical use of
marijuana, federal law still prohibits it and federal officials have
arrested and prosecuted Californians for growing and using marijuana
for medical purposes, including McWilliams.

He was arrested in October 2002 by federal agents on charges of
cultivating marijuana. As part of a plea agreement, McWilliams was
sentenced in April to six months in prison, given three years
probation, ordered to seek drug abuse counseling and told to register
as a convicted drug offender. McWilliams has appealed.

"Clearly, we're going to comply with state law, but it puts us at odds
with federal law," Cox said.