AREA DAS TO UNIFY RULES ON MEDICAL POT

Medical marijuana users in the Sacramento region can expect guidelines,
possibly by the end of the year, on how much pot they can grow or own
without getting harassed by law enforcement.

District attorneys in Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Yuba and Amador
counties are hoping to produce uniform standards that were left out of
Proposition 215. The 1996 state initiative allows people with severe
medical conditions to use marijuana with a doctor's permission. But the law
has been fraught with enforcement issues that have plagued authorities and
users.

"We could look to the Legislature and the governor to cure the problem, but
if not, we need to take matters into our own hands and come up with some
kind of guidelines," said Yuba County District Attorney Patrick McGrath.
"You can't ignore the elephant in the corner."

The initiative conflicts with federal narcotics laws that still make
growing or owning marijuana illegal. It also fails to define how much
marijuana should be legal for medical use, McGrath said.

He has gotten phone calls at home from police officers unsure of what to
do. "They say, 'This is what we have, here's what we found. Should we
arrest them?' " McGrath said.

Other prosecutors are also weary of starting from ground zero on each case.
"That's what we're trying to resolve right now is this case by case
analysis," said Daniel Gong, Placer County assistant district attorney.

A proposed state law that would direct state and local health
representatives to set guidelines and also issue certificates to users is
going through the Legislature, but a similar bill failed last year.

The five area counties have enough at stake to pursue a regional approach,
one that would be consistent with any new state laws, said El Dorado County
District Attorney Gary Lacy.

In his county, he already has begun working with El Dorado County sheriff's
deputies and county health officers to come up with some determination of
quantity amounts and how to ensure patients have a legitimate relationship
with the doctors who certify them.

Enlisting a medical group to help review patients who want to be certified
for marijuana use will be too expensive unless a widespread region
participates, Lacy said.

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully didn't return phone calls
Tuesday. But she has been involved in discussions with the other counties,
said Dale Kitching, who supervises the office's major narcotics cases.
Though other district attorneys were hopeful about uniform guidelines,
Kitching said Scully hasn't committed to anything.

Without a uniform state law, counties are hamstrung, but many are
attempting local guidelines, said Larry Brown, executive director of the
California District Attorneys Association, which is backing the proposed
state legislation.

He said Berkeley recently settled on 10 plants and 2 pounds of pot, but
Oakland opted for 30 plants outdoors and 48 indoors.

For those who use marijuana to ease pain, nausea or other ailments, the
confusion, they say, is just more pain.

Dave Wahlers, 54, a former prison guard on disability, planted sweet peas,
tomatoes and zucchini in March, just like he does every spring. But this
time, he planted marijuana seeds in his fenced backyard garden in
Sacramento's north area.

Ever since he fell off the roof when chasing an inmate at Folsom State
Prison in 1978, his spine has disintegrated, his knees are forever
wrenched. His arm snagged on something as he fell, and now pain shoots
through his shoulder. Seizures overcome him at times.

His friends helped him plant his garden because he can do little more than
water it.

At his kitchen table, he lines up orange pill bottles of painkillers and
anti-depressants.

"It's like a charley horse that never goes away," he said, describing his
seizures, which sometimes paralyze his lower body.

"I refuse to wear diapers," said Wahlers, a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran.

But Wahlers is afraid to be so dependant on addictive painkillers like
Vicodin. "The marijuana doesn't stop my pain, it keeps my mind off it so
I'm not thinking about it 24 hours," he said.

Sacramento city police officers knocked on his door Thursday evening. A
neighbor had spotted Wahler's garden and reported him.

Wahlers, who said he has never had police on his doorstep before, showed
the officers his medical certificate in a pearlized frame and the copies he
staked in the garden. He said he planted 30 seeds in hopes of getting 15
usable plants, which would yield the 3 pounds he figures he needs for a year.

Wahlers said he had called the police and the District Attorney's Office
before he planted anything to find out how much he could plant, but got no
replies.

Wahlers wasn't arrested or cited, said Sgt. Dan Hahn. The department will
submit the case to the District Attorney's Office to determine if he will
be charged.

Kitching acknowledged that Wahlers is unlikely to see his plants again,
even if he is never charged.

Rather than giving a plant count as a guideline for medical users, Kitching
said he considers every case on its own merits. "We're not going to give
our stamp of approval across the board," he said.

But Wahlers said he's left with nothing, even if he did nothing wrong and
tried to do the right thing.

In Sacramento County, if deputies determine whether someone with a medical
certificate appears to be growing for his or her own use, they will not
confiscate the pot, said Sgt. James Lewis, a department spokesman.

More than legitimate medical users, growers who are trying to legitimize
their drug-trafficking careers with a borderline medical certificate get
the most attention from law enforcement, he said.