FEW APPLY FOR MEDICAL-MARIJUANA CARDS ON FIRST DAY

SAN DIEGO -- On the first day qualified medical-marijuana patients
were allowed to seek county identification cards, 17 people turned up
at the public health office near Old Town to apply.

County officials set aside a special wing in the Rosecrans Avenue
office of the Health and Human Services Agency to accommodate
applicants, but at mid-day today the information and records clerks
were all but sitting idle.

"We wanted to be ready for them if they showed up en masse," said
Adrienne Yancey, an assistant deputy director for public health services.

The county scheduled 26 appointments through this week, and was also
accepting walk-in patients for the cards, designed to help police and
sheriff's deputies distinguish between legitimate patients and
recreational pot smokers or illegal dealers.

San Diego County sued California in 2006 over the issue, but lost in
Superior Court and on appeal. Both the California and U.S. Supreme
Courts declined to hear the case.

Public health officials expect to issue 100 or so cards a month over
the next year. The fee is set to recover the cost of processing the
applications.

No one left the county health office with an I.D. card
yesterday.

The county has 35 days to process applications and patients must pick
up return to the office to pick up the cards in person when they are
completed or drop off a pre-paid self-addressed FedEx envelope.