Accord Sought in Medical Marijuana Fight
Task force made up of warring factions calls for a voluntary registry to protect patients from arrest.
SAN
FRANCISCO-A committee of cops, medical marijuana advocates and
doctors has recommended that California establish a voluntary registry of
medical marijuana patients to protect users from arrest.
The Medical Marijuana Task force,
appointed in March by state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, also has recommended
that the state develop regulations to allow groups of patients and
caregivers to grow marijuana. The
proposals, if made law, would represent an about-face from the policies of
former Gov. Pete Wilson. Wilson's attorney general, Dan Lungren,
maintained that Proposition 215, passed by voters in November 1996,
allowed only individual patients to grow marijuana and to use the medical
marijuana law as a defense if prosecuted.
Photo Identification Cards
Proposed State regulation of
marijuana cooperatives would allow clubs now operating underground in
Humboldt, Mendocino, Marin, San Francisco, Alameda, San Diego and Santa
Cruz counties to function openly, said task force members and other
medical marijuana advocates. "Some
clubs, at least, will apply under these guidelines," said Dale Gieringer,
an author of Proposition 215 and a spokesman for the California chapter of
the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which lobbies
for the legalization of marijuana. The
statewide registry would make enforcement uniform, with patients issued
photo identification cards that all the state's law enforcement agencies
would honor. "Hopefully, this would be
establishing a basic bright line for law enforcement in terms of
identifying qualified patients so that they can then leave them alone,"
said Scott Imler, director of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center in
West Hollywood. Several task force
participants said the proposals represent a remarkable degree of consensus
achieved by representatives of groups that have long been at loggerheads
over the medical marijuana issue. "We've
accomplished much more than I believed was possible," said Tiburon Police
Chief Pete Herley, who also represented the California Police Chiefs Assn.
on the committee. "I worked with people I would never have expected to
come into contact with." But some
participants, including the California Peace Officers Assn., said they are
still seeking changes by Lockyer to the committee's final document before
deciding whether to support it. "The
whole idea of having a Proposition 215 that violates federal law is a
difficult dilemma for us," said Robert Elsberg, the peace officers'
representative on the task force. "The citizens of California want
marijuana to be made available, and the federal government says it is a
controlled substance." Proposition 215
was supposed to end the prosecution of patients who could produce a
doctor's recommendation that they use medical marijuana to treat a variety
of serious illnesses, including AIDS and cancer. Instead, a patient's
chances of being arrested and prosecuted for using medical marijuana
depend largely on where the patient happens to live or travel.
In Mendocino County, a user can apply to
the county health department for an identity card and expect to be
unmolested by local deputies if in possession of up to six marijuana
plants and two pounds of marijuana. But even patients carrying a Mendocino
identity card have no guarantee against arrest in the many other counties
that interpret the law as merely a defense a patient may use after being
brought to court on charges of growing, buying or possessing marijuana.
Lockyer asked the 30-member task force,
balanced between Proposition 215 supporters and opponents, to make the law
work. That group, which included organizations as diverse as the
California Narcotics Officers Assn. and marijuana club operators, agreed
on the registry in June, after a series of closed-door meetings, with the
caveat that some members would have to get their organizations to sign off
on the plan before publicly supporting it.
The task force's recommendations have
not yet been released, and some of the wording is still being reviewed by
organizations represented on the committee.
'Treats Marijuana Like
Heroin' But some medical marijuana
supporters and AIDS activists have already raised concerns about a
registry. "This is unprecedented," said
Dennis Peron, chief author of Proposition 215, whose San Francisco medical
marijuana club was closed by a federal court in 1998. "Registering cancer
patients? For what? This is treating marijuana as though it were heroin."
The law, Peron insisted, "is working. They are just doing this to appease
the cops." A copy of the text agreed to
by committee members at their last meeting was obtained by The Times. The
16-page document, drafted as an Assembly bill, would have patients submit
their doctor's recommendations and an application to their local county
health department, along with an as-yet unspecified fee.
In return, patients would receive an
identity card, which would include a 24-hour 800 telephone number that
officers could call to verify the card's validity. People identified as
primary caregivers to medical marijuana users would also have the right to
carry the identity card. The card would be renewed annually.
A similar system exists in Oregon, where
patients must pay $150 to register with the state.
State Sen. John Vasconcellos hopes to
introduce an Assembly bill this month to establish the statewide registry.
The bill would leave it to the Department of Health Services to determine,
through public hearings and consultations with experts, what constitutes a
reasonable amount of marijuana for a medical user to possess at any one
time. "We feel very confident that this
is a very solid product," said Rand Martin, a Vasconcellos aide who
attended committee meetings. Martin declined to discuss particulars of the
proposals, which he said Vasconcellos and Lockyer hope to unveil in the
next two weeks. The task force also
calls for the Department of Health Services to issue emergency
regulations, "after public comment and consultation with interested
organizations," specifying the amount of marijuana a patient may legally
possess--something that was not included in Proposition 215.
It is unclear what reception the
registry proposal will receive from state legislators or from Gov. Gray
Davis, who opposed Proposition 215 in 1996, but who has said nothing
publicly about Lockyer's task force.
Michael Bustamante, spokesman for the
governor, said that Davis has taken no position on the issue because no
bill has yet been offered.
(Source: Los Angeles Time 5/7/99 )
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