NO POT ID CARDS ON THEIR WATCH

Sheriff, Police Chiefs Unite

Alameda County police chiefs - including those in Fremont and Newark
- - overwhelmingly oppose Supervisor Nate Miley's proposal to issue
identification cards to medical marijuana users and their caregivers.

Eight chiefs and the county sheriff say they wouldn't honor the cards.
The county police chiefs group also sides with them. Only Oakland
Police Chief Richard Word supports the idea.

Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty asked Miley to poll the
chiefs and sheriff on the issue when it came before the board's Public
Protection Committee in October.

Sheriff Charles Plummer and police chiefs for Fremont, Newark, the
East Bay Regional Park District, UC Berkeley, Livermore, Pleasanton,
Alameda and Piedmont all have written letters opposing use of the cards.

"Talking among the chiefs, nobody is against medical marijuana," said
Pleasanton police Chief Timothy Neal, reached Wednesday in Bodega Bay
at a county police chiefs' retreat.

But he, like the others, said the conflict between the federal law,
which bars possession of marijuana, and state Prop. 209, which allows
medical marijuana use, puts them in a quandary.

And Neal, more than anyone, has been touched by the issue.

He said his mother, who died a week and half ago of pancreatic cancer,
increased her appetite by using Marinol, the prescription form of marijuana.

"We had nine months to say goodbye," Neal said. "You begin to cherish
every week and month you get to say goodbye."

Neal noted in his letter to Haggerty that the prescription form of the
drug serves the same purpose as ingesting the drug by smoking it.

"I do not believe that a legitimate need exists for the use of
unregulated, unlawfully grown marijuana for medical purposes," he
wrote. "It is tantamount to growing one's own opium to deal with pain
when prescribed equivalents are available."

Joe DeVries, field director for Miley, said Marinol tablets do no good
if the cancer or AIDS patient is too nauseated to hold down any food.

"If we're going to have police make a determination that a patient
can't use marijuana as medicine, then maybe we should have doctors
make a determination that police can't use bullets because they have a
negative effect on health," DeVries said.

DeVries said he's not surprised by the police chiefs' and sheriff's
view.

"It's very hard for them to distinguish that there's a legitimate use
and an illegal use," he said. "That's the point of this system. If we
have cards for people, police can leave those people alone and focus
their attention on the illegal drug trade."

Supervisor Gail Steele, who also sits on the board's Public Protection
Committee, said she doesn't know where she stands on the issue yet
because she wants to do more research, saying, "I think this is a tough one."

Haggerty didn't return calls seeking comment. Steele said Haggerty
told her he wasn't ready to put it on Monday's agenda for the board
committee.

When Miley was a member of the Oakland City Council, he backed efforts
to allow distribution of medical marijuana, including setting
standards on how much could be cultivated on a plot of land.

Oakland's police chief, Richard Word, pointed out in his letter that
the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative issues identification cards
that help officers determine a patient's status. He said an
identification card issued by the county would be given similar
consideration.

DeVries compared the controversy to the uproar about 10 years ago over
needle exchanges. Originally, he said police were against distributing
the needles to drug users to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS.