Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jan 2006
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2006 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Does not print LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Leslie Wolf Branscomb, Staff Writer
Cited: San Diego County Board of Supervisors 
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/general/bos.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/San+Diego+County
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS TARGETED

Activists Oppose County Lawsuit

Medical marijuana advocates yesterday urged county supervisors to drop
their plans for a lawsuit challenging the state law that allows the
ill to use pot with a doctor's approval.

But to no avail. Counsel John Sansone said the suit would probably be
filed next week.

Several dozen pro-marijuana activists held a rally outside the county
administration building before arriving en masse at the Board of
Supervisors' first meeting of the year. About half a dozen spoke to
the supervisors.

Their presentation was not on the agenda, so the board was prohibited
from discussing it or taking action.

That was fine with the protesters.

"All I'm here to do is introduce myself to them," said Rudy Reyes,
before the meeting began. "I'd like to ask them, 'Hey, where's the
compassion?'

"I'm here to see why they're making these medical decisions for me,"
said Reyes, who was severely burned in the Cedar Fire in October 2003.
"They're not doctors."

Mark-Robert Bluemel, Reyes' attorney, said legal action against the
county may be "in the works."

"The bottom line is we have a county government that refuses to comply
with the law," Bluemel said. "It's baffling."

In November, the supervisors voted -- against Sansone's advice -- to
sue the state to challenge Senate Bill 420, the 2003 law requiring
counties to provide identification cards to medical marijuana users to
protect them from state prosecution. The supervisors have refused to
comply with the requirement.

Last month, the supervisors voted to sue the state to overturn
Proposition 215, the "Compassionate Use" law passed by the voters in
1996, which allows use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Sansone said yesterday that a single lawsuit will argue that federal
law supersedes state law when there is a conflict. Under federal law,
possession and use of marijuana is a crime.

"We're going to be asking the court to declare the two state laws
invalid," Sansone said.

The marijuana activists said after the board meeting that they felt
the supervisors were attentive to their presentation.

"I think that they were listening," said Laurie Kallonakis, president
of San Diego NORML, which advocates legalization of marijuana.

"We will come to the board as much as possible, every meeting they
have, until they either decide not to sue or until it is resolved one
way or another." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake