LODE TACKLES MEDICAL POT HAZE

SAN ANDREAS -- Calaveras County supervisors Tuesday night considered a set
of guidelines to help policy makers and law enforcement officials cope with
the clouded issue of medicinal marijuana.

The county's Medical Marijuana Task Force -- comprised of doctors,
pharmacists, law enforcement officials and one patient who uses marijuana
to relieve problems associated with a tumor -- developed the local
guidelines during the course of four meetings over six-months.

The board approved several of the recommendations and was considering
others late Tuesday night.

The guidelines, which are not legally binding, were developed to help local
law enforcement officials and medical marijuana users follow the proper
legal paths in the wake of the passage of Proposition 215, the
Compassionate Use Act of 1996. The voter-approved initiative made it legal
for people suffering from certain serious medical conditions to use
marijuana with a doctor's approval or recommendation.

The development of local guidelines was pushed by Angels Camp resident
David Jack, who uses marijuana to counter the effects of a brain-stem
tumor. Jack was concerned local residents with a legal right to grow and
use marijuana for medical reasons were being persecuted and asked county
officials to draft guidelines to stop the harassment and let both law
enforcement and medical marijuana users know what's acceptable in terms of
usage and possession.

At Jack's request, the board created the task force earlier this year.

The task force made four recommendations, but the one that attracted most
of the attention was a proposed interagency protocol to help law
enforcement determine which cases merit investigation for marijuana
possession and/or sales and which cases appear to be legal possession under
Prop. 215.

The task force could not agree on the amount of marijuana a patient or
primary caregiver should be able to possess or cultivate for medicinal
purposes.

The group voted 10-3 in favor of the protocol, which -- among other things
- -- would allow legal medical marijuana patients or their primary caregivers
to have three flowering and three non-flowering plants and 1.3 pounds of
processed marijuana.

Jack said those limits won't work for him and many other medical marijuana
patients. He suggested the limits be set at 25 plants and 4 pounds.

"If there's any illegal activity, investigate and prosecute," he said.

Sheriff Dennis Downum, who called Prop. 215 a "horribly written law that is
full of pitfalls," asked the board not to take action on the interagency
protocol because the public might consider the board's endorsement as
something that's "somehow written in stone."

District Attorney Peter Smith said the guidelines would be a factor -- but
not be the ultimate factor -- in whether or not he decided to file criminal
charges. As of press time, the board had not made a decision on the
interagency protocol.

In addition to the protocol, the task force recommended the board lobby
state officials to establish statewide standards and policies for
implementing Prop. 215 and also continue its support for the state Medical
Marijuana Research Project.

The task force also presented medical recommendations on the use of medical
marijuana, essentially a position paper drafted by Drs. Rodger Orman, Ryan
Thompson, Paul Jacobson and Jakob Jaggy. The board accepted that paper on a
3-2 vote, with Chairman Tom Tryon and Supervisor Terri Bailey casting
dissenting votes.

The doctors concluded the use of marijuana should primarily be considered a
"comfort measure" in the care of a terminal patient with a life expectancy
of less than one year.

To reach Lode Bureau Chief Francis P. Garland, phone 736-9554 or e-mail
garnel@goldrush.com