STANISLAUS SHOULD ISSUE MEDICAL MARIJUANA ID CARDS

I am glad that someone has finally threatened to sue Stanislaus
County for not complying with state law requiring it to implement the
state's medical marijuana ID card program ("Medical marijuana cards
requested" (Aug. 27).

The law that created the program is over four years old. The time for
the county to comply with that law is long overdue. Just last month,
an appeals court unanimously ruled that the counties of San Diego and
San Bernardino must implement the program and that doing so is not a
violation of any federal law. If there was ever any doubt about
Stanislaus' obligation, this recent ruling should have eliminated it.

Failure to offer the ID cards has undoubtedly lead to bona fide
medical marijuana patients being falsely arrested at the expense of
local taxpayers. At best, many hours have been wasted trying to
verify the validity of doctors' notes. The ID cards offer a simple,
uniform way for law enforcement to enforce state law.

Hopefully our county's leaders will move quickly to protect patients,
save law enforcement resources and avoid costly litigation by
implementing the ID card program without further delay.

Nathaniel Rutkoski

San Jose