COUNTY SUPERVISORS OK MEDICAL MARIJUANA PLAN

Medical-marijuana advocates scored a win on Tuesday - but they won't
be able to relish the victory for months.

A years-long saga ended when the San Bernardino County Board of
Supervisors voted unanimously to implement a program for
medical-marijuana identification cards. But it will be nearly two
months or even longer before the county begins issuing those
identification cards to people with doctors' prescriptions.

"Our concern is seeing that the medicine gets out to our patients,"
said Ron Downey, a proponent of medical marijuana who spoke at
Tuesday's board meeting, along with a half-dozen others.

The proposed ordinance authorizing the program will go before the
board again July 14 for adoption, and the program should be in full
swing 30 days after that.

If all goes according to plan, patients can then start submitting
applications for identification cards, said Lynne Fischer, county
spokeswoman.

It will take considerably longer, however, for patients in the county
to start seeing dispensaries opening up nearby. That's because the
board also imposed a temporary ban on dispensaries until the county's
development code can be updated to include provisions and design
standards for them.

"That doesn't prohibit them (patients) from the other options they
have under the law," Fischer said.

Under state law, medical-marijuana patients can grow their own plants
- - up to six mature plants or 12 immature plants - or get their
medicine at dispensaries in other counties, Fischer said.

Julie Rynerson Rock, director of the county's Land Use Services
Department, said she will appear before the board on or before Aug. 4
with an update.

The news didn't sit well with medical-marijuana proponents.

Downey urged the county to seek input from the advocates on how to
approach the issues and logistics surrounding dispensaries.

Under the county program, caregivers and non Medi-Cal patients will
pay $166 per identification card per year, and Medi-Cal patients will
pay $83 per card per year. The county Health Department will run the
program six hours a day Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.
Hours of operation will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a one-hour
break for lunch between noon and 1 p.m.

The health department expects to serve 250 to 300 patients and
caregivers a year, and those wanting to pick up an application can do
so by dropping by the department's main office at 351 N. Mountain View
Ave., San Bernardino.

The U.S. Supreme Court on May 18 declined to hear a lawsuit filed
jointly by San Bernardino and San Diego counties challenging
California's Compassionate Use Act. The two counties argued that
federal law outlawing marijuana possession and use under any
circumstance pre-empted the state law, which allows for the
cultivation, use, possession and transport of the drug per a
physician's recommendation.

It ended a three-year legal battle and opened the door for patients to
get their identification cards, which means that police will no longer
have grounds to seize a patient's marijuana when found in their possession.

For more information, call the San Bernardino County Public Health
Department at (800) 782-4264. Applications will be distributed by
appointment only.