STATEWIDE MEDICAL MARIJUANA CARD BILL GOES TO THE GOVERNOR

A bill that would make medical marijuana cards available statewide is
headed to the governor's desk. Senate Bill 420 also would allow for a
minimum of six mature plants, 12 immature plants or a pound of dry
marijuana, according to Sue North, the chief of staff for the bill's
author, Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose.

The amount of marijuana allowed would be a minimum, not maximum, North
said. It will not affect the larger amounts allowed in counties like
Mendocino, she said.

"It will have absolutely no impact on what we're doing here at all," said
District Attorney Norm Vroman.

Currently, the amount of marijuana each of the county's 2,000, or so,
medical marijuana card holders are allowed to have at any given time is up
to two dry pounds; and/or 25 plants, as long as they're limited to a
maximum canopy area of 100 square feet, according to Sheriff Tony Craver.

He explained the square footage rule was designed to allow people who are
unable to grow big, healthy plants to have more of them.

Craver agreed the proposed bill wouldn't change anything for Mendocino
County card holders, but it might make it easier for people transporting
marijuana over county lines.

Some counties, Craver noted, allow as few as three plants, while others
have no limits.

"It's a nightmare. It would be like having a separate speed limit in every
county," he said.

While the proposed law wouldn't change the vagaries of the county limits,
it would force the handful of counties that have yet to implement
regulations to do so.

Craver called it "a step in the right direction."

The way cards are approved and dispensed would remain the same under the
bill, but counties would send their data to the state, where it would be
centrally available to law enforcement, North said.

She said Vasconcellos realizes the bill would have no effect on counties
with existing limits higher than the state minimum. It's really geared to
deal with the holdout counties where people who legitimately possess
marijuana may unnecessarily get arrested and their marijuana confiscated.

"Law enforcement supports it because they waste tremendous resources
hassling people and locking people up," she said. "It's a waste of their time."

In addition, a majority of voters made it clear when they approved
Proposition 215 they want medical marijuana use legalized, she said.

Nevertheless, the Assembly Republican Caucus opposes the bill, calling it
"a measure that takes medical marijuana use to extremes by establishing
state medical marijuana identification cards. This costly bill would
ultimately weaken the enforcement of federal laws that prohibit the
manufacture and distribution of marijuana."