LAWMEN AGAINST POT ID CARDS FOR THE SICK

Alameda County police chiefs 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 the East Bay Regional Park
District, UC Berkeley and the cities of Livermore, Pleasanton, Alameda,
Fremont, Newark 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 in Bodega Bay on Wednesday 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 for the legitimately ill."

But 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."

When Miley was a member of the Oakland City Council, he backed efforts to
allow distribution of medical marijuana.

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.