MEDICAL MARIJUANA BACKERS WARY AS ID CARDS READIED

Even as San Bernardino County prepares to comply with state law and
issue identification cards to medical marijuana patients in August,
advocates say access to cannabis may remain difficult.

The same day the Board of Supervisors approved the ID card program,
the board also voted to enact a moratorium on the opening of
dispensaries -- to allow time for county planners to draft land-use
and permitting rules for the facilities.

It's not yet clear what kind of restrictions the county will place on
dispensaries or collectives. While the county's rules will apply only
to unincorporated areas, many cities in both San Bernardino and
Riverside counties already have banned dispensaries or enacted
moratoriums.

Riverside County has banned them in unincorporated areas, though it
does issue identification cards to patients whose physicians have
prescribed marijuana to ease various symptoms, including pain and nausea.

San Bernardino County fought the state's medical marijuana law for
more than three years on the grounds that it conflicted with federal
law. The county lost the legal battle in May and now must issue the
identification cards.

With so many bans and moratoriums in place, there are only a few
Inland locations where patients can buy marijuana. Dispensaries can be
found in Palm Springs in Riverside County and the city of Yucca Valley
in San Bernardino County.

"Most of these towns have banned them outright," said Scott Bledsoe, a
Crestline resident who sued San Bernardino County over its refusal to
implement the state medical marijuana card program. "That's an uphill
fight for us."

Desert Dispensary

While dispensaries in other counties can be free-wheeling places where
patients choose their pot from jars with colorful names, the Yucca
Valley dispensary looks more like a pharmacy.

The California Alternative Medical Solutions office sits in a remote
Yucca Valley industrial park surrounded by swaths of Joshua trees and
a public works yard. It has been operating nearly a year.

Co-owner D.J. Ross and the group's board of directors examined
dispensary ordinances across the state and decided to give their
operation a clinical look. Employees in scrubs dole out medicinal
doses of cannabis in prescription bottles with labels, all weighed on
certified and inspected scales.

"People get this idea that it's a black market drug and a shady
operation," said Ross, who regularly invites people to tour his operation.

Patients enter a small foyer and present their ID cards and
prescriptions to personnel behind a glass window. They also can
purchase herbal remedies or schedule appointments for massages,
chiropractic adjustments and other alternative medicine therapies.

But Ross said he is concerned about an ordinance drafted by the Yucca
Valley Planning Commission that would ban outlets like his.

Ross said concerns generally focus on the dispensary's proximity to
children attending classes at the adjacent Desert Ballet Centre and
Yucca Valley Karate businesses.

Planning commissioners say the dispensary in nearby Palm Springs
should be sufficient for local patients.

Ross argues that the dispensary presents no danger to children and
that there have been no nearby crimes. He invites parents and
grandparents to visit.

"I welcome them," Ross said. "I tell them, 'Please come in and see
what we're all about.'"

San Bernardino County may have a second dispensary if Carl Clines,
owner of California Alternative Caregivers in Venice, gains approval.

Clines, who opened the first legal dispensary in Los Angeles four
years ago, has approached county planners and sheriff's officials
about opening one at Big Bear Lake.

He has invited them to visit his Venice dispensary, which he says
operates under very strict rules.

Concern Over Rules

Advocates fear that San Bernardino County's ordinance governing
dispensaries will consign them to out-of-the-way industrial areas next
to strip clubs instead of allowing them in a commercial district
alongside pharmacies or tobacco shops. Bledsoe said he believes they
can operate discretely in such areas.

He is frustrated by the contradiction of governments issuing
identification cards to patients while banning the dispensaries that
provide the marijuana.

"It does no good to have cards if you can't possess it legally," he
said.

Most Inland patients get their marijuana in Orange or Los Angeles
counties.

FEW ALTERNATIVES

For patients with cancer or AIDS who can't drive, that's not an easy
alternative, Bledsoe said.

"Most people get their marijuana the old-fashioned way: from black
market criminals," said Lanny Swerdlow, medical director at the THCF
Medical Clinic and Patient Center in Riverside.

The clinic provides assistance to medical marijuana patients but does
not provide marijuana.

San Bernardino County spokeswoman Lynn Fischer said patients can grow
a small amount of marijuana for personal use. But they still must find
a source of plants or seeds.

The county expects to begin its ID card program in mid-August, after
the supervisors formally adopt the ordinance on July 14.