ROSES AND RASPBERRIES

A Raspberry - the "Tilting at Windmills" award - to county Supervisor
Jeff Stone, who plans to ask his fellow supervisors to join San Diego
and San Bernardino counties in suing the state to overturn 1996's
voter-approved medical marijuana initiative. It's an ill-advised
waste of time and money and nose-thumbing at the voters of California
(who, by the way, have reaffirmed their support for the humanitarian
use of marijuana in numerous polls before and since the initiative
passed). The conflict between state and federal law - which doesn't
recognize any legitimate uses for marijuana - is long-established,
and it's clear that the U.S. Supreme Court will have to be the
ultimate arbiter of this and similar laws in 10 other states.

It's questionable whether counties, which are essentially arms of the
state government, have the legal standing to sue states, and there is
little evidence of any widespread abuse of the medical marijuana
laws. And, in fact, the portion of the law Stone wants the county to
fight is the part that requires them to issue identification cards to
people eligible to legally use the drug, so he is in essence fighting
the very controls the county should have to keep it from being
abused. It's also rather disquieting to hear Republicans - as Stone
and the majority of supervisors in all three counties are - assert
the supremacy of federal law over state law when it suits their
interests, but argue in favor of states' rights, not to mention the
inviolability of majority rule, in many other circumstances.
Riverside County should pass on Stone's proposal and let its
neighbors fight this quixotic battle.