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County Has An Ally In Effort To Upend California's Medical Marijuana Laws
North County Times | 01/25/2006

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego County has an ally Wednesday in San Bernardino County in its maverick effort to upend California's medical marijuana laws.

Supervisor Dianne Jacob said she welcomed the support of her San Bernardino County counterparts, who decided unexpectedly yesterday to join the lawsuit against the state.

"California counties are caught in the cross-hairs of state and federal laws that contradict each other," Jacob said. "The vast majority of counties haven't moved forward to implement the project, making it even more prudent to ask the court to resolve the clash."

Noting that state laws are in conflict with federal drug laws, San Diego County officials filed a federal court suit last Friday seeking to overturn Proposition 215, the voter-approved Compassionate Use Act.

The county also asked the court to void a law passed by the Legislature requiring counties to create and maintain a database of medical marijuana users and issue them identification cards.

Three groups that wanted the county to withdraw its suit filed a motion in federal court yesterday, asking to intervene in the San Diego County action on behalf of patients who use pot to alleviate cancer symptoms and chemotherapy side-effects.

They are the American Civil Liberties Union, the Drug Policy Alliance and Americans for Safe Access and the Drug Policy Alliance.

Americans for Safe Access predicted in a statement that "the county's lawsuit will soon be thrown out of federal court based on the fact that San Diego County has no standing to sue the state in federal court."

San Diego had been the only California county refusing to provide identification cards to registered medical marijuana users until yesterday, when San Bernardino County supervisors said they also want the matter clarified in court before proceeding.

"There is a conflict between state and federal law that must be resolved by the courts before the county feels it can move forward," San Bernardino Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus said in a statement.

San Bernardino County counsel Ron Reitz issued a one-paragraph statement following the supervisors' unanimous closed-session vote, saying the board had chosen to join San Diego County's lawsuit.

Kevin Keenan, the ACLU's executive director for San Diego and Imperial counties, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that San Bernardino County's action was as "equally meritless" as the San Diego County suit.

San Diego County supervisors voted in November to sue the state to overturn Proposition 215, which was passed by California voters in 1996. The measure decriminalized the use of medical marijuana, but federal law makes the use of marijuana illegal, even for medical purposes.

San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts went on record at yesterday's board meeting in opposition to the lawsuit, which Supervisor Pam Slater-Price said is intended to apply only to unincorporated areas of the county, not incorporated cities.

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