Pubdate: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191 Fax: (619) 293-1440 Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/ Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Jessie Seyfer, Associated Press IDS FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA ISSUED IN SAN FRANCISCO Cannabis User Cards Require Doctor's Note; Patients Can Avoid Prosecution SAN FRANCISCO -- With $25 and a doctor's note, sick people can get an official city identification card entitling them to use medicinal marijuana, San Francisco's maverick district attorney announced yesterday. "This represents another stone in the foundation we're building to make people recognize that cannabis is a legitimate medicinal agent," Terence Hallinan said. "I'm not really worried we won't be able to work things out with the federal government." The program allows patients to avoid local prosecution if caught possessing the drug. It is modeled on programs in Mendocino County and Arcata, which also pose a direct challenge to federal law. Californians legalized medical marijuana by approving Proposition 215 in 1996, but the measure has been entangled in legal disputes since. San Francisco Health Department officials said their ID card program would not have been possible without the influence of Hallinan, who calls himself "America's most progressive district attorney." "When Proposition 215 passed, many prosecutors said they wouldn't enforce it," department of public health director Dr. Mitch Katz said. "But things are different in San Francisco." As a prosecutor, Hallinan has refused to carry out the "war on drugs," choosing instead to send minor drug offenders to diversion programs. Hallinan's stance on pot is shared, however, by a growing number of law enforcement officials elsewhere in Northern California, where attitudes toward marijuana have a decidedly mellow tone. The ID program announced yesterday does not address how those in need will obtain the drug; it merely shields them from arrest by certifying that cardholders have a medical reason to use it. Doctors sign a form agreeing to monitor the patient's medical condition. The cards are good for up to two years. Teen-agers can get them too, with approval from their parent or guardian. "This is a wonderful civics lesson that could only occur in a place like San Francisco," San Francisco Assistant Police Chief Prentice Sanders said. The Office of National Drug Control Policy refused to comment on the San Francisco program, but the agency has opposed medical marijuana initiatives, considering them to be a back-door route to legalizing marijuana. "Ballot initiatives to date generally have not limited use of marijuana to a small number of terminally ill patients, as most voters envisioned," the agency's latest annual report reads. "Rather, they commonly allow marijuana to be obtained without prescription and used indefinitely without evaluation by a physician." Also yesterday, a federal judge hinted he may be forced to allow an Oakland club to distribute medicinal marijuana because the U.S. Justice Department has not rebutted evidence that cannabis is the only effective treatment for a large group of seriously ill people. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer of San Francisco said he would rule Monday in the complex case, which deals with the conflict between California's medical marijuana initiative and federal drug regulations. Jane Weirick, who uses marijuana to alleviate pain from a back ailment, said the cards "finally give us legitimacy." "I was taking prescription opiates and was stuck in bed all the time," Weirick said. "When I started taking cannabis I was finally able to function. It was like night and day." Voters have approved initiatives legalizing medicinal marijuana use in California, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state. The San Francisco pot ID program has been in operation for a week. Former Attorney General Dan Lungren had opposed any attempt to carry out Proposition 215. But since taking office last year, Attorney General Bill Lockyer has shifted the state's position, even standing behind a bill to create a statewide pot ID card program. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D