By Jeff McDonald
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
4:32 p.m. July 31, 2008
The county has lost its latest court fight against a
state law requiring counties to issue government
identification to qualified medical marijuana
patients.
In a 39-page ruling issued Thursday afternoon, the
Fourth District Court of Appeal said San Diego and San
Bernardino counties have no legal authority to resist
the identification card program.
“We conclude the identification card laws do not pose
a significant impediment to specific federal
objectives embodied in the (Controlled Substances
Act),” the ruling from the three-judge panel states.
“The purpose of the CSA is to combat recreational drug
use, not to regulate a state's medical practices.
County supervisors had argued that issuing government
identification to medical marijuana patients would
violate federal drug laws that categorize marijuana as
one of the most dangerous known drugs.
Federal law does not recognize any medical benefits to
marijuana, even though 11 states have passed
legislation allowing sick and dying patients to use
the drug to ease their symptoms.
Lawyers representing San Diego-area patients said they
were not surprised by the ruling, and reiterated their
position that identification cards will help police
and others.
Identification cards “let the police know they
shouldn't waste their time harassing or otherwise
investigating patients who are legal under California
law,” said Joseph Elford of Americans for Safe Access.
“Beyond the benefits to individual patients, this case
sends a message to all states that federal law doesn't
stand as an impediment to their passage of laws to
protect medical marijuana patients.”
County supervisors voted to sue the state rather than
issue cards to medical marijuana patients. Merced and
San Bernardino counties joined the case, although
Merced later abandoned the suit and issued the cards.
The counties lost at the trial court level in 2006 and
opted to appeal. They now have 40 days to decide
whether to appeal to the California Supreme Court or
implement the program.
Thomas Bunton, the senior deputy county counsel in
charge of the case, said he was disappointed with the
appellate court ruling. The county maintains that
issuing the cards would condone actions that are
illegal under federal law.
“The court really didn't get to the key issue,” Bunton
said. Federal law “clearly regulates medical
practices. It says marijuana has no currently accepted
medical use.
Bunton said he would likely be meeting with
supervisors in closed-session next week to discuss the
options.
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