NEW PANEL FACES MEDICAL POT ISSUE

SAN ANDREAS -- Calaveras County supervisors Monday appointed 12 people to a
task force to study guidelines for medical marijuana users.

The county formed the panel to come up with guidelines for following
Proposition 215, which went into effect in 1996. The law allows seriously
ill patients, with a doctor's support, obtain and use marijuana.

Four doctors -- Roger Orman, Jacob Jaggy, Ryan Thompson and Paul Jacobson
- -- were named to the team. Pharmacists Gary Duda and Ray Guidi were also
appointed.

Representing law enforcement will be Sheriff Dennis Downum, Angels Camp
Police Chief Bill Nuttall and District Attorney Peter Smith.

Jeanne Boyce, director of the Health Services Agency and Dr. Robert
Marshall, county health officer, were also named.

County counsel Skip Batchelder will be an adviser to the task force.

David Jack, who suffers from a rare brain tumor, was the lone civilian
named to the task force. He had asked that more patients be appointed to
but was denied.

Supervisors Terri Bailey and Paul Stein voted against the task force. They
argued that the state, not the county, should set guidelines for dispensing
the drug and determining who is qualified to receive it.

"I still believe it's a state issue," Bailey said. "If each county has
different guidelines, then you will have hundreds of guidelines throughout
the state. If you leave Calaveras County, then you'll have a different set
of guidelines in the next county."

Stein suggested an alternative legal drug, Marinol. The substitute is a
synthetic version of marijuana.

"People shouldn't be allowed to grow their own plants," Stein said. "If you
do this, then you should let people grow coca plants to make cocaine."

Jack, who tried using Marinol, said the substitute drug does not relieve
his symptoms as well as marijuana. Marinol also costs about $13 a pill and
his prescription calls for four pills a day, he said.