POT BACKERS PROTEST LAWSUIT

San Diego Says Federal Laws Trump State

SAN DIEGO - Medicinal marijuana advocates Tuesday challenged a San
Diego County lawsuit that seeks to overturn a state law permitting
the use of pot for medical purposes.

The county sued the state of California and its director of health
services Friday in federal court, saying federal law that prohibits
marijuana use trumps state law that allows it. California approved
the use of marijuana for medical purposes with the passage of
Proposition 215, which won 55 percent votes cast in 1996.

San Diego is the only California county that has refused to provide
identification cards to registered medical marijuana users.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Safe Access and the
Drug Policy Alliance filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit on
behalf of patients including Pamela Sakuda, 58, who uses marijuana to
treat side effects of chemotherapy for rectal cancer. The San Diego
woman said the drug has quelled nausea and stimulated her appetite.

"The supervisors have turned a deaf ear to the pleas of sick and
dying people, and now they have shown that they are equally willing
to ignore the law," said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for
Safe Access.

According to the ACLU, 11 states have approved marijuana for medical
purposes. California was first, followed by Montana, Arizona, Alaska,
Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and, most
recently, Rhode Island.

The county's five Republican supervisors were mostly silent as
several marijuana users urged them Tuesday to drop the lawsuit filed
last week in San Diego. One supervisor, Ron Roberts, garnered
applause when he said he opposed the lawsuit.

"Your actions are unjust, unlawful and un-American," said Wendy
Christakes of La Mesa, an east San Diego suburb, who has used
marijuana since 2003 to treat a back injury. She used a cane to step
up to the microphone.

Rudy Reyes, 28, said marijuana has allowed him to sleep after massive
wildfires in 2003 burned 75 percent of his body and put him in the
hospital for eight months. He said doctors at University of
California-San Diego Medical Center recommended the drug after his
body rejected morphine.

"I don't have flashbacks, I don't have those middle-of-the-night
terrors," he said in an interview after urging the supervisors to
drop their fight.

Last year, a 3-2 board majority voted to ignore a state requirement
that counties issue identification cards for medical marijuana users
and maintain a registry of people who apply for the cards. The move
came despite a warning from the county counsel that the move would
likely result in costly litigation.