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.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors decided today to adopt a medical marijuana identification card system, 4 to 1, making it the 48th county to adopt plans to comply with a requirement of a 2003 state law.

By giving patients the option of obtaining cards identifying them as qualified medical marijuana patients, law enforcement officers will be able to quickly discern whether they are operating within the law, sparing taxpayers the burden of costly, time-consuming false arrests, advocates said.

The only counties larger than Sacramento that have yet to obey the law requiring a medical marijuana I.D. card program are San Diego and San Bernardino. Those two counties have challenged the program in court three times, all of which have failed. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has announced its intention to make a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Ventura County became the last in Southern California – other than San Diego and San Bernardino – to implement a medical marijuana I.D. card program Monday.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro — County pursues medicinal marijuana case
San Diego County is pressing its long-shot lawsuit against state medical marijuana laws toward the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Board of Supervisors voted to petition the nation’s top court even before the California Supreme Court declined Oct. 16 to hear the county’s argument that the state laws should be overturned.

The San Diego Union-Tribune contacted each San Diego County supervisor about the board’s decision to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its challenge of state medical marijuana laws. Here are their responses:

Greg Cox: “When you get into a conflict between state and federal law, the only alternative is to go to court.”

Bill Horn: “Whether or not (federal agents) can enforce their law, that’s their choice. My problem is I have something that’s in black and white which my attorneys tell me is in conflict.”

Dianne Jacob: “Handing out ID cards at the same time the federal government considers marijuana illegal is not fair to those who think the cards would protect them.”

“This case is not about questioning the medicinal value of marijuana,” Supervisor Dianne Jacob said. “It’s about resolving the conflict between state and federal law.”For nearly three years, the supervisors have persisted in their legal fight rather than direct county health officials to issue identification cards to qualified medical marijuana patients as required by state law.

The San Diego Supervisors say they’re only interested in clearing the confusion over the federal law, which say cannabis is illegal, and the state law, which says counties must issue cards for legal medical marijuana patients that want them.  They are not convinced by the rulings of their district court, the appeals court, or their supreme court in California, so now they appeal to the federal Supreme Court, which only accepts 1% to 2% of the appeals it receives, and which rarely gets involved in state issues unless the state courts have been divided on the issue, which they are not.

You would think that perhaps something else other than resolving federal/state conflict is driving this San Diego Supervisors agenda.  And you’d be thinking right, if you continue on through the news story:

Pam Slater-Price: “I do not consider I would be doing my duty if I accepted the idea that we were to issue these licenses for so-called medical marijuana. The way the law is set up practically anything qualifies, including having a bad hair day.”

San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn remains unconvinced, however. He does not believe there is any medicinal value in marijuana.

“I don’t think it’s right, to be honest with you,” he said. “Issuing the cards is condoning the use of marijuana. That’s not a message I personally want to send.”

“I don’t think it’s right.”  56% of California voters thought it was right when they approved Prop 215 in 1996.  Every court you’ve been to has told you there is no conflict – federal laws against cannabis do not make a crime of printing state-sanctioned and mandated ID cards.  But since you “don’t think it’s right”, and since you, as a county supervisor and not a doctor or scientist, don’t believe there is medicinal value in cannabis, then you don’t feel the need to obey the law.

That’s kind of funny, because I don’t believe there is a valid reason to prohibit cannabis, so I don’t feel the need to obey that law.  I guess we do have something in common.

County OKs medical marijuana ID cards / HanfordSentinel.com News
There was no debate. No controversy. No protest. People using marijuana for medical purposes with doctors’ recommendation will be issued state-sanctioned identification cards in Kings County, the Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday.

By a unanimous vote, the supervisors adopted a medical marijuana ID card program. The decision makes Kings County the 42nd California counties to establish the program in compliance with a 2003 state law.

The program — which advises police to accept authenticated cards as proof of medical need — is intended to help legitimate patients with serious illness avoid arrest while giving police the tools to distinguish legal medical marijuana users from illegal stoners.

You know… “illegal stoners”, the people who’ve committed the “crime” of being too healthy to smoke marijuana.

The decision comes as a result of July 31 ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that rejected the challenge by San Bernardino and San Diego counties and upheld that the medical marijuana ID system is legal. Similar decisions are pending in several other counties.

Currently, there [are] no medical marijuana dispensaries in Kings County.

Fresno County, which has recently adopted its medical marijuana ID card program, projects about 500 patients seeking the cards. Tulare County, which implemented its program in 2006, has issued about 40 cards over the past year, although officials say the $300-plus fee might have discouraged applications.

In Kings County, about 10 individuals are projected to apply for the cards, said Perry Rickard, public health department director.

County officials say some strict protocols must be followed before ID cards are issued to patients with proven need for medical pot.

The county charges a fee of $225 per application and [half that] for a Medi-Cal beneficiary.

The application must designate a primary care provider and includes a physician-signed recommendation proving that the need is legitimate. In addition, an electronically transmittable photo will be taken of an applicant and sent over to the state.

During a 30-day verification period, the county will verify the applicant’s residence within the county and the recommending physician’s licensure status with the Medical Board of California, Rickard said.

Congratulations to Kings County for making the sensible decision to protect medical marijuana users from arrest and harassment.  And at $225 a pop, that’s some good money the county could be making.  Now just imagine if every social cannabis user had to purchase a $225 “stoner license” each year… how much revenue would that generate for government?  Medical marijuana registration fees have proven that cannabis users are willing to pay “protection money” to the authorities, how long will it be before government realizes there is more money to be made from legalization than from prohibition?

Ruling overturns Redondo medical marijuana decision – The Daily Breeze

Three justices from the 2nd District Court of Appeals decided Wednesday that state law does not require “a patient to periodically renew a doctor’s recommendation regarding medical marijuana use.”

In addition, the justices ruled that it should be left to a jury to determine if the amount of marijuana a patient possesses is related to their medical needs or exceeds the law.

[Christopher] Windus, 39, was arrested Dec. 14, 2004, after police officers searched his room at the Palos Verdes Inn and found approximately 1.6 pounds of marijuana.

Before his trial began, Windus tried to convince Torrance Superior Court Judge Andrew Kauffman that he should be allowed to present a defense based on California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

In 2003, the state Legislature clarified the law to allow qualified patients or caregivers to have no more than 8 ounces of dried marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

Dr. William Eidleman told the judge that he consulted with Windus in 1999 and 2001, and gave him written recommendations for the medical use of marijuana for chronic back pain.

Eidleman said Windus ingested marijuana, which requires four to eight times more of the drug than smoking it. He said it would be appropriate for Windus to have 3 to 6 pounds of marijuana in his possession.

After hearing from the witnesses, the judge said he found Windus was legitimately a medical marijuana patient, but that no physician had recommended he possess more than 8 ounces of the drug at any time.

This week’s decision overturned Kauffman’s ruling and sends the case back to the trial court level

The California courts decided earlier this year that SB 420, the bill that limited patients to eight ounces, was unconstitutional because the legislature does not have the authority to amend an initiative passed by the people.  They’ve also given quite a bit of deference to the doctor-patient relationship and resisted attempts by lawmakers to thwart medical marijuana, like we saw in the decision last week in San Diego forcing that county to issue state-mandated medical marijuana ID cards.

If only our federal courts were so understanding…

Medical IDs for Marijuana Wait for Ruling – Health – redOrbit
Jul. 9–Fresno County officials want a state appeals court to rule on identification cards for medical marijuana users before deciding whether the county should start distributing them.

The state started asking counties to issue ID cards to medical marijuana users in 2005, nearly a decade after voters approved such use in a statewide initiative.

Forty of the state’s 58 counties issue ID cards, which certify that a doctor has prescribed the drug.

Several medical marijuana users on Tuesday asked Fresno County supervisors to issue the cards. Some of them said they’ve been needlessly detained by law enforcement officials, while others said they fear arrest.

Dawn Nolan of Fresno said she has been using marijuana following a 2002 crash with a drunken driver. Now disabled, Nolan worries about driving home after purchasing marijuana in Tulare County. “I don’t want to see anyone arrested for something they need,” she said.

But Sheriff Margaret Mims asked supervisors to hold off on a decision until the appeals court rules. She said issuing the cards might encourage medical marijuana users to drive under the influence of the drug.

Now that’s an interesting criticism – If you give someone an identification card it will lead to DUIs.  Here in Oregon, we have a statewide mandatory registration card system and over 20,000 registered patients.  In 1998, when the program started, Oregon had 538 driving fatalities, 233 were alcohol-related.  In 2006, those numbers had dropped to 477 driving fatalities, with 177 alcohol-related.  In 1998 there were a total of 22,578 DUII arrests in Oregon; in 2005 the number had dropped to 19,521.  There are no statistics specifically for DUIMJ that I could find, but if giving 20,000 people medical marijuana ID cards is leading to more DUIIs and deaths, then DUIIs and deaths from alcohol must have dramatically plummeted.