SUPERVISORS VOTE TO OPPOSE MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE

SAN DIEGO - On a 4-1 vote, the Board of Supervisors went on record today
against the city of San Diego's efforts to sanction medical marijuana use.

The panel voted to send a letter to the City Council registering opposition
to medical marijuana guidelines the city is pursuing. Ron Roberts voted no.

On Oct. 16, a council committee will consider guidelines put forth by the
city's medical marijuana task force.

They include a recommendation that police give a pass to qualified medical
marijuana users who grow or possess up to three pounds of the drug, or a
year's supply as recommended by a doctor.

"I think it's important that we send a message to the city of San Diego
that we are opposed to this quantity of marijuana being available," said
Supervisor Bill Horn.

Horn said three pounds amounts to six to 18 cigarettes a day for a year -
depending on "how you roll them."

"My concern is the control of this, and the fact that we're sending a
message to our young people that somehow there is a medical benefit to the
use of marijuana," Horn said.

But several medical marijuana advocates told board members they were being
misled, and said the county should be creating guidelines itself - not
opposing the city's efforts.

Proposition 215, which California voters passed in 1996, allows patients
with permission from a doctor to use marijuana for medical conditions. But
the law has been problematic, as federal law makes no exception for medical
uses.

Medical marijuana advocates say cannabis can help relieve pain and other
symptoms for patients with AIDS, cancer and other conditions.

Steve McWilliams, a vocal proponent of medical marijuana, said the city
task force drafted "the finest guidelines anywhere in the state."

"The important thing is that cannabis patients - the people that have a
recommendation from a doctor - be allowed to have their medicine," he said.

"So now when somebody else has done something positive, something
constructive, something well-considered, like little childish bullies on
the playground you are going to come and take it all away," he told the board.

McWilliams, who recently gave away marijuana outside City Hall and days
later had plants confiscated by federal agents, had been a member of the
city medical marijuana task force, but quit.

Supervisors heard from a number of representatives of anti-drug groups.
They said sanctioning medical use would send a mixed message to children,
and that the proposal before the city is flawed.

Louarn Sorkin, a board member of Parents and Adolescents Recovering
Together Successfully, said "medical excuse marijuana" would allow large
quantities of the drug to be grown and kept in neighborhoods.

"Issues of the sick and dying should be taken very seriously, but
advocating for looser drug laws will harm our children and our county," she
said. "Research clearly shows that the greater access and availability
leads to greater usage, greater acceptance and ultimately greater addiction."

The anti-drug contingent worried that the city's action doesn't have
sufficient restrictions, and that there is a great potential for abuse and
for the drug to be diverted to the streets.

They said the city program would not prohibit felons, minors or people with
past drug problems from obtaining medical marijuana.

"Unfortunately, what it appears as though the city of San Diego will be
considering does not have anything to do with compassionate care for the
suffering," said Jay Goldby, a Poway City Council member and representative
of the San Diego Prevention Coalition.

"Rather it appears to be the first wave in the legalization of illegal
substances, starting with marijuana," he said, adding that three pounds
"goes way beyond compassionate care."

Roberts' motion to delay action failed. He wanted to wait until the
federal-versus-state issues are settled and until "marijuana as medicine"
studies at UC San Diego and elsewhere can be completed.

Supervisor Dianne Jacob called the possible city action a "dangerous
proposal" since Proposition 215 allows marijuana use for for "loosely
defined medical purposes."

"The ramifications of what the city of San Diego has before it has
regionwide impacts," Jacob said. "I think it's very appropriate that we get
involved. We need to do the right thing and we need to act responsibly."

Under the city's program, qualified users would have an identification
card, although the city doesn't yet have that program in place.

While the City Council's Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee
will give the task force proposal an airing in a few weeks, the full City
Council would have to give final approval to any action.