PATIENTS GET OK TO OPPOSE COUNTY'S MARIJUANA CHALLENGE

SAN DIEGO - Medical marijuana patients will have the chance to oppose
San Diego County's challenge to overturn California's "Compassionate
Use" law, according to a tentative ruling Thursday by a Superior Court judge.

Judge William R. Nevitt issued a tentative ruling Thursday that said
several patients in Southern California who use marijuana medicinally
- - and represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the
Americans for Safe Access and the Drug Policy Alliance - could
"intervene" and oppose San Diego County's lawsuit. Nevitt is
scheduled to hold a hearing and issue a final ruling today.

The county angered local medical marijuana patients and state and
national marijuana advocacy groups in December by filing a lawsuit
seeking to overturn California's voter-approved, 1996 medical marijuana law.

In June, Nevitt rejected the state's request to toss out the county's
lawsuit, and said it should go to trial - which could happen in September.

Meanwhile, the ACLU, Americans for Safe Access and the Drug Policy
Alliance, filed a request last month to be able to intervene in the
lawsuit, to represent the interests of actual patients who use
marijuana as medicine.