Pubdate: Tue, 17 Jul 2007
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Copyright: 2007 The Orange County Register
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321
Cited: The Institute of Medicine report 
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/marimed/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Proposition+215
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/SB+420
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

A PRESCRIPTION FOR COMPASSION

County supervisors should approve ID cards for medical marijuana patients.

The county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the charged 
issue of having the Orange County Health Care Agency issue voluntary 
identification cards to medicinal users of marijuana, in compliance 
with state law.

The supervisors should approve the program for several reasons. The 
first, of course, is that they are required by state law to do so. 
One might have argued that things should have been set up 
differently, with effective power lodged at the most-local level and 
flowing upward toward the state government. However, under California 
law counties are legally subdivisions of the state and are legally 
obliged to follow mandates of the state government.

In 2004 the Legislature passed Senate Bill 420, which set up a 
statewide voluntary ID card program for medical marijuana patients, 
and mandated county health departments to implement the program.

For anyone concerned with respect for the law, it's a no-brainer. At 
the supervisors meeting three months ago when the issue was first 
broached, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas argued against an ID card 
program, claiming it would increase the demand for marijuana and make 
it easy for recreational users to get access to the drug. The 
arguments Mr. Rackauckas made might have been appropriate against 
passing Proposition 215, which exempts patients with a licensed 
physician's recommendation and their caregivers from laws against 
possessing, using, growing and transporting marijuana. But California 
voters heard those arguments in 1996 and passed Prop. 215. The 
apocalyptic predictions of opponents have not come to pass - in fact, 
surveys conducted by the state Attorney General's Office show that 
marijuana use among teenagers has declined, and faster in California 
than nationally. The arrest rates for marijuana possession have 
stayed virtually flat since 1996. The 1999 Institute of Medicine 
report commissioned by then-drug "czar" Gen. Barry McCaffrey also 
showed that marijuana use did not increase in states that permit medicinal use.

Having the county Health Care Agency issue ID cards to legitimate 
medical marijuana patients will not solve all the problems the state 
has experienced (often due to official foot-dragging) in implementing 
Prop. 215. But it will simplify matters for patients and police. 
Police officers who encounter somebody in possession of marijuana who 
has a valid ID card will know that the county has checked out the 
physician's recommendation and that they should leave that person 
alone. Without such a card the issue is more confused.

With an ID card system police resources will be freed to go after 
real crime rather than spend valuable time hassling seriously ill 
people or calling doctors to see if a recommendation is valid. Any 
possession of marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but state 
officials are bound by the state constitution to uphold state law in 
the face of apparent conflicts.

San Diego County has filed a lawsuit to invalidate California's 
medical marijuana law on the grounds that it conflicts with federal 
law, but a district court threw the case out. San Diego is appealing, 
but if there were any real chance of such a suit succeeding, federal 
drug warriors and their allies would have pursued it in 1996 when 
Prop. 215, the Compassionate Use Act, was passed.

State law, compassion and common sense all argue for a unanimous vote 
today in favor of a medical marijuana ID program.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake