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Medical pot ID card plan approved
03-28-06 | UnionDemocrat.Com | CHRIS NICHOLS

The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors yesterday approved a new medical marijuana identification program, despite concerns raised by several medical pot patients, two supervisors and the sheriff.

The board's 4-0 vote puts the county in compliance with a state ID program, which aims to make it easier for law enforcement to determine who is, and who is not, a medical marijuana patient.

Supervisor Steve Wilensky was absent yesterday.

The program takes effect April 3, and will be administered by the county Public Health Department.

The approval did not please several medical pot patients, who said yesterday that the voluntary program could allow authorities to abuse the rights of patients.

"The next thing they'll do is put a big (marijuana) leaf on our outer garments to let people know we're a danger!" said Sonoran Christopher DeMars after yesterday's board meeting in San Andreas.

DeMars' said his father, also named Christopher DeMars, has used medical marijuana for two decades to treat symptoms related to multiple sclerosis.

The father and son urged supervisors to reject the program, saying it would require patients to give up too much information to authorities and reduce the amount of marijuana that patients can legally possess.

Medical marijuana use has been legal since 1996, when voters passed the state's Compassionate Use Act.

To sign up for the ID program, patients must provide the county's Public Health Department with proof of their identity and residence, and a recommendation for marijuana from a physician licensed in California. The application fee is $45.

While the program will allow for ID cards, it also synchronizes state and county guidelines regarding the possession and cultivation of medical marijuana.

For example, it reduces the amount of marijuana patients can legally possess in Calaveras County from two pounds to the state limit of 8 ounces.

The county set the 2-pound limit several years ago, before the state established its own threshold.

But the DeMars and Supervisor Tom Tryon said patients should be able to possess two pounds of pot, especially since there aren't any cannabis dispensaries nearby.

"We went through an extensive process five years ago," Tryon said, referring to the county's medical marijuana task force that set guidelines for growing and possessing the plant in Calaveras County.

Patients will still be able to grow and cultivate six mature marijuana plants as before. But Supervisor Merita Callaway questioned how cultivators will stay under the 8-ounce limit when they harvest their plants, many of which can produce several pounds of pot each.

"I'd like to think that the sheriff would exercise some discretion in September and October," the harvest season, she said.

Calaveras County Sheriff Dennis Downum said he supports the ID program, but noted there are still many gray areas regarding medical marijuana enforcement.

"There is no consistency anywhere in this arena," Downum said after the meeting, adding that he would prefer the ID program be mandatory.

"It does kind of keep us in a state of confusion," he said.

Downum has been outspoken in the past about the abuses of medical marijuana, saying that many people have received marijuana recommendations without truly needing them. He's also noted that the federal government still considers medical marijuana illegal, and that his department would cooperate with federal authorities in enforcing their marijuana laws if asked.

Downum and the DeMars agree on one point: They feel few, if any, medical marijuana patients will sign up for the ID cards.

The younger DeMars noted that only about 20 people in Amador County have signed up for the cards. That county has had the program for several months.

Sally Farrington, a medical marijuana patient from Hathaway Pines, said with the recent revelations of domestic spying by the federal government that she doesn't trust any authorities.

"With all the stuff that's been going on, I don't want to give my name to anyone," she said.

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Are they proposing a "sign up program" for other types of medical patients. Perhaps a diabetes registry so if someone is caught with insulin, the cops won't mistake it for contraband insulin. Or, how about an asthma registry. All those people with the inhalers and nebulizers can breathe easier knowing that they won't falsly be arrested for carrying paraphernalia (my spelling sucks this morning).

If medical marijuana is used to treat a medical condition, how does the state justify and plan to keep the registry information confidential considering the current HIPPA laws? Medical info is medical info. It is all confidential.

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