MEDICAL POT ON THE MEETING MENU

El Dorado County law enforcement met twice with medical marijuana advocates
in the last several months to re-evaluate how much pot possession is legal
to treat the sick.

A third meeting is planned for mid-June. Gary Lacy, El Dorado County
district attorney, Sheriff-elect Jeff Neves and Erik Schlueter, deputy
district attorney, attended the meetings. Lacy said his group plans to
consult with colleagues before they present new medical marijuana guidelines
to the advocates in a few weeks.

The Compassionate Use Act, which passed in 1996, did not specify how much a
patient or provider could legally possess. Right now, guidelines specified
by Lacy allow someone with a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana, or
someone who provides marijuana to a sick person with a recommendation, to
possess six plants and/or two pounds of processed marijuana.

The meetings, the most recent of which took place at Denny's in Placerville
on May 22, grew out of a forum held in Garden Valley more than a year ago.
Law enforcement officials were asked to attend the meeting but only one
county employee showed up -- Dr. Steven Drogan, a health officer.

Judy Ryland, an El Dorado County resident, organized the forum as well as
the recent meetings.

"I'm a networker," she said. "A year ago I initiated a forum and invited law
enforcement. They didn't come. Now things are turning and we're talking.
This is good."

Ryland was joined by Dr. Molly Fry, and her husband, Dale Schafer, who runs
the California Medical Research Center at Cool, Calif. Dr. Philip Denney, a
physician from Loomis, Calif., and a medical marijuana patient, also
attended the meeting.

"We presented what the Sonoma County guidelines are," Ryland said. "We are
looking at them because they seem to be working there."

Guidelines set forth by the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office are a
little more than a page in length. They specify 10 questions a deputy should
ask in the field if he or she is handling a possible medical marijuana case.

The guidelines allow not more than 99 plants and/or 3 pounds of processed
marijuana per patient or provider. In order to produce 3 pounds of the drug,
one can cultivate marijuana plants with a combined canopy that fills 100
square feet as long as that canopy does not contain more than 99 plants.

Any amount of marijuana, processed or growing, that exceeds those limits can
be confiscated by law enforcement.