SUTTER COUNTY SUPERVISORS CONSIDER MEDICAL POT ID CARDS

Fourteen years have passed since California voters approved the use
of marijuana with a doctor's prescription, yet Sutter County is one
of the last holdouts against identification cards for users. But that
may change soon.

A public hearing Tuesday night may clear the way for the county to
issue ID cards for medical marijuana users. Approval by the Board of
Supervisors would leave Colusa County as the last of 58 counties not
to participate in the state program.

Despite years of resistance by the county, some officials appeared
ready to come to terms with the state, if reluctantly.

"I'm leaning toward supporting it, if only for the fact that it is a
state law," Supervisor Jim Whiteaker said last week. "There are laws
we don't agree with, but we have to enforce all the state laws that
come before the board."

To receive a card, applicants would need a recommendation from a
California-licensed doctor to use marijuana to treat conditions such
as glaucoma or cancer-related pain, according to Tom Sherry, the
county's human services director. The fee for an ID card would be
$128 a year or $64 for those in the Medi-Cal program.

The Mid-Valley counties have been among the last to respond to
Proposition 215, the 1996 ballot measure that cleared the way for
medical cannabis use despite a federal ban. The law provided for
counties to issue cards to residents with prescriptions to use
marijuana, but no such programs appeared locally until Yuba County
started one in 2008.

San Diego, San Bernardino and Merced counties challenged Proposition
215 in court, but a San Diego judge rejected the suit in 2006 and the
state Supreme Court declined to take the case last year. In October,
the U.S. Justice Department announced it would no longer prosecute
medical pot patients in the 14 states that allow use of the drug.

Several Sutter County leaders said those developments were needed to
assure them a program would not put them in the crossfire of state
and federal conflicts.

"All the questions have been asked and answered, so now we can move
into it without conflicts, all the community angst this could
create," Supervisor Stan Cleveland said Tuesday. "We're able to
comply with state law, and hopefully not be in conflict with federal
law. We've been able to take advantage of the knowledge of other
counties' (experiences) and what they've been through."

Sheriff J. Paul Parker called an ID card registry useful for
distinguishing medical from criminal pot use, saying such records
would save investigators time and effort.

"A lot of these checks can be done sooner if there's a registry,"
Parker said. "Without condoning it, it makes it easier to enforce
state law. It'll help us clarify who is and isn't a bona fide medical user."

At least one official, though, remained unwilling to cross federal
drug law even with the softening federal stance on marijuana users.

"If it's legal, I support it; and if it's not legal, I don't support
it," said Supervisor Larry Montna. "If we pass it, nothing prevents
the feds from busting whatever we have, and that ain't right. You've
got to have a law that's upheld by country, state, county and city.
You can't choose what laws you do and don't want to uphold."

While resistance to ID card programs appears to be fading, marijuana
advocates still fear other attempts by counties and cities to curb
the drug, according to Ellen Komp, deputy director of the advocacy
group California NORML. In the Sacramento Valley, the Tehama County
Board of Supervisors is to decide Tuesday -- the same day as Sutter
County's public hearing -- on restrictions that include a requirement
to report the presence of legal marijuana plants with the county,
which opponents call a violation of the Fifth Amendment right to
avoid self-incrimination.

Still, the expansion of ID card programs -- and a ballot proposition
this year that would legalize and tax marijuana in the state --
heartened her. "There's still a great deal of prejudice against
marijuana from those who don't know much about it, a kind of
knee-jerk reaction from those who still think it'll cause reefer
madness. But we're seeing that change," Komp said. "We've seen more
movement in the last year than in the 20 years before that."

KNOW AND GO

WHAT: Sutter County Board of Supervisors hearing on a proposal to
issue ID cards for residents using marijuana with a doctor's prescription

WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday

WHERE: Board chambers, 466 Second St., Yuba City