Medical marijuana advocate group sues San Bernardino County for not issuing ID cards

Medical marijuana advocate group sues San Bernardino County for not issuing ID cards – 1/05/09 – Los Angeles-Southern California-LA Breaking News, Weather, Traffic, Sports – abc7.com
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) — The fight to be able to use marijuana for medical reasons is intensifying in the Inland Empire. There is a lawsuit aimed at forcing one county to issue state-mandated identification cards to medical pot users.

Voters approved Proposition 215 back in 1996, which legalized the use of medical marijuana if prescribed by a doctor. But to this day, the county of San Bernardino has refused to go along with voters’ wishes. So they are currently being sued.

County officials would not speak on camera due to the pending lawsuit. However, their reasoning is that the federal law does not allow for medical marijuana. They say federal law trumps anything California voters would approve.

Medical marijuana advocates say the courts have already agreed with them. The superior court, the court of appeals and the state supreme court have decided to not hear the case.

Now that the group says they’ve filed suit, the county will have 30 days to show up in court and respond.

San Bernadino and San Diego are acting like the six-year-old with her fingers in her ears yelling “nyah nyah, I can’t hear you!”  County officials just don’t like marijuana.  They tried this “it’s against federal law” argument (the “it” being simply issuing ID cards, not actually possessing or producing marijuana) before.  The court didn’t buy that, since issuing a county ID card violates no federal laws and because county officials’ jobs are to uphold state law, not federal law.  So they appealed, and lost that case.  So they appealed to the California Supreme Court, and they lost again.

San Diego’s last ditch effort is to petition the US Supreme Court, and while that’s on hold, San Bernadino has decided to just wait it out.  Meanwhile, thousands of patients risk harassment and arrest from not being able to prove to a police officer that they are legitimate medical marijuana patients.