CA: State To Issue ID Cards To Medicinal Pot Users To Prohibit Prosecution

By Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Source: San Francisco Chronicle

\t\tCalifornia health officials plan to issue identification cards to \t\tmedical marijuana users that would prohibit state and local authorities \t\tfrom seizing their stashes or prosecuting them, officials said Tuesday. \t\t
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\t\tThe cards will be available this summer for patients in at least 10 \t\tcounties, including Marin and Sonoma, and statewide by the end of the \t\tyear, said state Department of Health Services spokeswoman Norma Arceo. \t\t
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\t\tAll cards will have photographs, she said, and the state will have a 24- \t\thour, toll-free number that police can call to verify that \t\tidentification cards are authentic. Five other states -- Alaska, Hawaii, \t\tNevada, Oregon and Washington -- have similar ID cards, Arceo said.
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\t\tNews of California's card program came as an advocacy group in Berkeley \t\tfiled a lawsuit Tuesday, claiming the California Highway Patrol has \t\tseized marijuana from people who have provided a written doctor's \t\trecommendation.
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\t\t"It's a sorry, sorry state of affairs when people fear having their \t\tproperty taken by cops rather than criminals,'' said Joseph Elford, an \t\tattorney with Americans for Safe Access, which filed the suit in Alameda \t\tCounty Superior Court in Oakland.
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\t\tA study by the group last year estimated the cost to state and local \t\tgovernment of processing such cases was about $4 million a year.
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\t\tCHP spokesman Tom Marshall said Tuesday that the agency would honor the \t\tstate-issued ID cards but would continue its long-standing policy of \t\tconfiscating marijuana seized from motorists until the cards were \t\tissued.
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\t\t"We're just continuing the policy that we've had,'' Marshall said. "The \t\tchange will be when those cards are issued.''
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\t\tA voluntary card program was authorized in late 2003 by a law sponsored \t\tby former state Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, but money was not \t\tavailable for implementation until Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved a \t\t$1.5 million startup loan, said H.D. Palmer, deputy director of the \t\tgovernor's Department of Finance. The money will be repaid, and the ID \t\tcard program will be sustained with fees charged to cardholders, he \t\tsaid.
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\t\tFederal law enforcement agencies, by contrast, have maintained that \t\tmarijuana use is illegal nationwide.
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\t\tVasconcellos' bill, which then-Gov. Gray Davis signed, attempted to \t\tstandardize the jumble of local medical marijuana laws passed after \t\t1996, when state voters approved Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use \t\tAct, that legalized medical use of marijuana. The SB420 set a statewide \t\tpossession limit of 8 ounces per authorized individual.
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\t\tElford said the CHP's position is illegal because Vasconcellos' \t\tlegislation does not require that patients have a state-issued \t\tidentification card, only a written or verbal doctor's authorization. \t\t
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\t\tAnthony Bowles of San Francisco, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit \t\tfiled Tuesday, said he had been pulled over in May by a CHP officer \t\tbecause his front license plate was missing. The officer searched him \t\twithout his consent, Bowles said, and found 3 grams of marijuana that he \t\thad for his mother, who suffers from a chronic anxiety disorder.
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\t\tHe said he had shown the officer the "primary caregiver'' card issued to \t\thim by the San Francisco Department of Heath, but the officer seized the \t\tpot and issued him a misdemeanor citation for possession of marijuana. \t\t
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\t\tThe possession charge was withdrawn by the prosecutor at Bowles' first \t\tcourt appearance, and now Bowles is trying to get the pot back.
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\t\t"It's horrendous," said Bowles, 28. "I think, 'What if it was my mother \t\tinstead of me who was going through this?' ''
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\t\tArceo said the state would begin a pilot program for the ID cards this \t\tsummer in Amador, Del Norte, Trinity, Mendocino, Marin, Shasta, \t\tSacramento, Sonoma, Santa Cruz and Yuba counties. All 58 counties will \t\tbe issuing cards by December, she said.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Author: Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - Page B - 1
Copyright: 2004 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact: letters@sfchronicle.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Link to article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/issuecards.htm

 

By Glenda Anderson, The Press Democrat
Source: Press Democrat

The state will begin issuing identification cards to medical marijuana users in Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin counties this summer, part of a pilot program in 10 counties designed to protect certified users from arrest and pot seizures. The voluntary ID card program, developed by the state Department of Health Services, will be expanded statewide by year's end, said Norma Arceo, a spokeswoman for the department.

Law enforcement officials hailed the move, saying it will simplify a confusing patchwork of local policies and make it easier to distinguish between legal marijuana users and criminals.

"I think it's good news for everybody," said Mendocino County Sheriff Tony Craver, who helped start the first county medical marijuana program in California in 1999.

The state ID cards, required under a 2003 law, have been on hold because the Legislature hadn't authorized funding to launch the program, Arceo said. Legislators approved $983,000 last year to implement the law, sponsored by former state Sen. John Vasconcellos.

Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin counties - which already have local programs to identify medical marijuana users - volunteered to participate in the pilot program, which is expected to be on line in late July, Arceo said.

The other pilot program participants are Del Norte, Trinity, Shasta, Amador, Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Yuba counties.

The cards will make it easier for law enforcement officers to know whether people they find with marijuana possess it legally, Sonoma County Sheriff Bill Cogbill said. If they do, officers can simply walk away rather than investigate the case.

"I'm all for it," he said.

Medical marijuana activists also were pleased.

"It's a good step in the right direction," said Dane Wilkins, director of the North Coast office of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which pushed for implementation of the law.

Some counties, including Mendocino, initiated local ID card programs to allow authorized medical users to possess marijuana without fear of arrest while the state worked out the kinks in Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative that legalized pot for medical purposes.

But local identification cards often weren't recognized by other cities and counties, Craver said.

The CHP, which is being sued for allegedly arresting medical pot patients who have doctors' prescriptions, also largely ignored the identification cards, he said.

While the new identification program is expected to halt the CHP's policy of seizing pot they find in vehicles, it won't affect federal law enforcement agencies. Federal law treats all marijuana as illegal.

To implement the program, the state Department of Health Services will begin verifying physician recommendations for marijuana, which will be collected and processed by county health departments.

All card holders will be listed on a secure Web site, which can be accessed 24 hours a day only by law enforcement, Arceo said.

Applicants will pay an as yet undetermined fee to obtain the cards. The fees, which will be collected by counties, will cover local and state costs of maintaining the program, Mendocino County Public Health Director Carol Mordhorst said.

However, many of the details still are being worked out, Mordhorst said. She doesn't know what exactly her department's role will be nor its costs or fees.

"There clearly is work that has to be done," Mordhorst said.

Note: Sonoma, Mendocino, Marin counties in pilot program to protect certified users.

Source: Press Democrat, The (CA)
Author: Glenda Anderson, The Press Democrat
Published: Thursday, February 17, 2005
Copyright: 2005 The Press Democrat
Contact: letters@pressdemo.com
Website: http://www.pressdemo.com/
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20254.shtml

 

By Pat Arnold, Daily News Staff Writer
Source: Siskiyou Daily News

Yreka -- Within the next few months, health departments in 10 California counties are implementing a pilot program for the issuance of identification cards to medical marijuana users. Siskiyou County is not one of those 10 counties. A voluntary identification card program for medical marijuana users was authorized in 2003, by a law sponsored by former State Senator John Vasconcellos of San Jose. But at the time Vasconcellos' bill was introduced, there was no money available to implement the program. Since then, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has approved a $1.5 million startup loan for the program, authorities say.

The cost to state and local governments to operate a voluntary ID card program has been estimated at $4 million a year, but it is anticipated that in time, the program will pay for itself from fees charged to cardholders for the issuance and renewal of cards.

According to Siskiyou County Public Health Officer Dr. David Herfindahl, this program is currently in the planning stages and in all likelihood, will not make its way to Siskiyou County before the end of the year.

The State Department of Health Services is responsible for formulating the regulations to operate the ID program and so far, none of those regulations have made their way to Siskiyou County, Herfindahl said.

The program contemplates a system where patients desiring to obtain an ID card would be required to see a licensed physician to make a determination whether medical marijuana is warranted for their particular illness.

The patient would then bring a written prescription from the physician to the local health department, who would confirm the patient's identity and that the patient had a face-to-face meeting with the physician making the recommendation for the use of medical marijuana. Once that information has been verified, the process of issuing an ID card that includes a photograph of the patient would begin.

"It is not the job of the health department to second guess or confirm the medical decisions of a physician," Herfindahl said, adding that the only role of the county health department in this program would be to confirm that the prescription was written by a licensed physician and confirm the identity of the patient presenting the prescription.

Planners say the identity of patients who are valid cardholders will be made part of a data base at a Web site accessible to law enforcement on a 24-hour a day, seven day a week basis. Only law enforcement would have access to the information in the data base, State Department of Health Services said.

Obtaining a card is not mandatory, but advocates of the ID card system are hopeful that medical marijuana users throughout California will be part of the ID card program, as users in Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington already are.

Advocates say the benefit of having an ID card is that if law enforcement stops someone at any hour of the day or night, they will be able to confirm the identity of the cardholder, the validity of the card and the cardholder's right to possess marijuana.

"We are still batting numbers around, and until it actually starts happening, we really don't know the number of cards that will be issued or what the cost to the cardholder will be," a representative of the State Department of Health Services said.

The pilot program for the issuance of ID cards will be instituted this summer in Amador, Del Norte, Trinity, Mendocino, Marin, Shasta, Sonoma, Sacramento, Santa Cruz and Yuba counties. Cards for the remaining 48 counties in California are expected to become available at the end of the year, officials said.

Source: Siskiyou Daily News (CA)
Author: Pat Arnold, Daily News Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, March 3, 2005
Copyright: 2005 Siskiyou Daily News
Contact: editor@siskiyoudaily.com
Website: http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20314.shtml