MEDICAL MARIJUANA ID CARDS ISSUED

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

The program shields card-holders caught with the drug from local
prosecution -though marijuana possession remains illegal under federal
law.

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

Californians voted to legalize marijuana for medical use in 1996, but
the ballot measure they approved has been entangled in legal disputes
ever since.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy has long opposed medical
marijuana initiatives, considering them backdoor routes to legalizing
marijuana. Agency officials refused to comment on San Francisco's new
ID program.

In addition to California, measures approving the medical use of
marijuana have passed in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada,
Oregon and Washington state.

While federal opposition to marijuana remains strong, there are signs
that government arguments against states' medicinal marijuana measures
may be weakening.

A federal judge on Friday hinted he may be forced to allow an Oakland
club to distribute medicinal marijuana because the Justice Department
hasn't rebutted evidence that cannabis is the only effective treatment
for a large group of seriously ill people.

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

Jane Weirick, who uses marijuana to alleviate pain from a back
ailment, said the city's ID cards will "finally give us
legitimacy."

"I was taking prescription opiates and was stuck in bed all the time,"
she said. "When I started taking cannabis, I was finally able to
function. It was like night and day."

Former state Attorney General Dan Lungren opposed any attempt to carry
out the 1996 ballot measure and shut down most of the state's informal
marijuana distribution clubs.

But since Bill Lockyer took over as attorney general last year, the
state's position has shifted toward support for the creation of a
statewide marijuana ID program.

"When Proposition 215 passed, many prosecutors said they wouldn't
enforce it," said San Francisco Department of Public Health Director
Mitch Katz. "But things are different in San Francisco."

As a prosecutor, Hallinan, who describes himself as "America's most
progressive district attorney," has refused to carry out the
government's War on Drugs, choosing instead to send minor drug
offenders to diversion programs.

His stance on marijuana is shared by a growing number of law
enforcement officials elsewhere in Northern California, where
attitudes toward marijuana have a decidedly mellow tone. Similar
marijuana ID programs already are in use in Mendocino County and Arcata.

To get the card in San Francisco, a doctor must sign a form agreeing
to monitor the patient's medical condition. The cards are good for up
to two years, and minors can get them too with approval from a parent
or guardian. The program doesn't address how card-holders will obtain
the drug. It merely shields them from prosecution -and then only local
prosecution.

Police officials have described it as an efficient way to distinguish
medical users from recreational ones.

"This is a wonderful civics lesson that could only occur in a place
like San Francisco," said Police Department Assistant Chief Prentice
Sanders. "We find that this is an orderly way to carry out the law and
the will of the people."