MARIJUANA GROUP'S SURVEY SAYS VOTERS OPPOSE SUPERVISORS' LAWSUIT

Most county voters support California's 9-year-old medical marijuana
law and oppose San Diego County supervisors' plan to sue to overturn
it, according to a survey released Monday. In addition, the survey
said most respondents would vote to replace the supervisors over the issue.

The $15,000 telephone survey of 500 randomly selected county voters
- 100 from each of the county's five districts ---- was
commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project, a national nonprofit
group that wants to decriminalize all marijuana use.

County supervisors immediately suggested the survey was politically
motivated by a pro-marijuana organization, and repeated that federal
law still considers marijuana an illegal drug without medical
benefit, and should take precedence over California's law.

"What do they say? 'Figures lie and liars figure?'" said Supervisor
Pam Slater-Price, who has served as the board's chairwoman for the
last year. "My first reaction is they've asked more people who
support marijuana use."

Marijuana Policy Project officials, meanwhile, said the survey was an
objective and valid sampling of the county's 1.379 million registered
voters. They also said the group was considering mounting an
initiative drive in San Diego County to ask voters to impose term
limits on county supervisors. Sixty-two percent of respondents said
they'd vote to replace their supervisors if they knew they supported
overturning the medical marijuana law.

"The message is very clear," project spokesman Bruce Merkin said,
"the voters don't want the board of supervisors to pursue this
(lawsuit). They're comfortable with Proposition 215 (California's
medical marijuana law). And they feel that rather than conducting a
war on patients, the board should be defending the patients there are
in the county."

Supervisors announced in December that they planned to sue the state
to overturn Prop. 215, California's "Compassionate Use Act."

The law, passed in 1996, said "seriously ill Californians have the
right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes" when
recommended by a doctor.

San Diego County supervisors ---- who have steadfastly called the law
a "bad" one that could increase marijuana abuse ---- voted in
November to defy a separate state law that ordered the county to
create an identification card and registration program for medical
marijuana users.

In December, the board voted unanimously in closed session to sue to
overturn Prop. 215 itself, on the basis that it should be pre-empted
by federal law.

Slater-Price and the other supervisors said they could not in good
conscience support Prop. 215 because federal drug enforcement agents
could still arrest and prosecute California residents regardless of
the state's law.

"I feel derelict in my duty to tell you it's OK, to do something when
you could then go out and be arrested," Slater-Price said.

In fact, federal agents raided 13 San Diego-area marijuana
dispensaries Dec. 12, including two in North County, and seized large
quantities of the drug, computers and records in one of the largest
crackdowns of its kind in the state.

Federal officials said the dispensaries were "fronts" for
distributing the drug.

Marijuana advocacy groups called the raids outrageous, cowardly acts
of an administration out of touch with voters.

The Marijuana Policy Project's survey, released Monday, reported:

- - 67 percent of respondents supported Prop. 215.

- - 70 percent said the county should follow state law and create the
identification card program.

- - 78 percent of respondents said supervisors "should not be wasting
taxpayer money suing the state to try to overturn California's
medical marijuana law."

However, some of those numbers could be misleading.

Sal Vescera, an analyst with the opinion and research firm that
conducted the survey - Seattle-based Evans McDonough Company -
said the survey had a 4.38 percent margin of error, meaning the real
percentages could swing by that margin in either direction.

In addition, the overall percentages of support were combinations of
strong and mild support.

For example, of the 67 percent who reported supporting Prop. 215,
only 44 percent "strongly" supported the law. Another 23 percent
"somewhat" supported the law, yielding the 67 percent overall support.

Likewise, 50 percent strongly agreed that supervisors should create
the identification card program; while 20 percent "somewhat agreed."

However, 62 percent said supervisors "should not be wasting taxpayer
money suing the state to overturn California's medical marijuana law.
Sixteen percent "somewhat agreed."