IDS ISSUED FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS

HEALTH: San Francisco Gives Cards To Patients Who Have A Doctor's Note, $25.

SAN FRANCISCO - With $25 and a doctor's note, sick people can get an
official city ID card entitling them to use medicinal marijuana, San
Francisco's maverick district attorney proudly announced Friday.

"This represents another stone in the foundation we're building to make
people recognize that cannabis is a legitimate medicinal agent," Terence
Hallinan said. "I'm not really worried we won't be able to work things out
with the federal government."

The program allows patients to avoid local prosecution if caught possessing
the drug. It's modeled on programs in Mendocino County and Arcata that also
pose a direct challenge to federal law.

Californians legalized medical marijuana by approving Proposition 215 in
1996, but the measure has been entangled in legal disputes ever since.
Health department officials said their ID card program would not have been
possible without the influence of Hallinan, who calls himself "America's
most progressive district attorney."

"When Proposition 215 passed, many prosecutors said they wouldn't enforce
it," department of public health director Dr. Mitch Katz said. "But things
are different in San Francisco."

As a prosecutor, Hallinan has refused to carry out the War on Drugs,
choosing instead to send minor drug offenders to diversion programs.
Hallinan's stance on pot is shared, however, by a growing number of law
enforcement officials elsewhere in Northern California, where attitudes
toward marijuana have a decidedly mellow tone.

The ID program announced Friday doesn't address how those in need will
obtain the drug; it merely shields them from arrest by certifying that
cardholders have a medical reason to use it.

Doctors sign a form agreeing to monitor the patient's medical condition. The
cards are good for up to two years. Teen-agers can get them with parental
approval.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer of San Francisco said he would rule
Monday in the complex case, which deals with the conflict between
California's medical marijuana initiative and federal drug regulations.

The White House's drug-control agency has said more scientific evidence is
needed. They received some Thursday at the International AIDS Conference.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, found pot use
did not interfere with the action of protease inhibitors, the anti-viral
drugs that keep HIV in check. Voters have approved initiatives legalizing
medicinal marijuana use in California, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine,
Nevada, Oregon and Washington state. The San Francisco program has been in
operation for a week.