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Medical marijuana ID program moves forward, in the face on dispensary closures
By Hempology | July 18, 2007
The Orange County Register, CA
17 Jul 2007
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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