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SLO County Action Alert: ID card vote on Tuesday

Thu, 07/27/2006 - 11:43am — Aaron_Smith

Dear Medical Marijuana Supporter,

Next Tuesday, August 1st, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors will be voting on whether or not to approve the implementation of the medical marijuana ID card program. The ID cards would be voluntary for patients and caregivers to obtain through the county and serve to further protect them from detainment, arrest or seizure of their medicine by state and local law enforcement.

This is a major step in the right direction towards securing safe and legal access to medical marijuana in SLO County.

Please take a few minutes to contact the Board of Supervisors to politely urge them to support the medical marijuana ID card program in SLO County. Feel free to use the talking points posted at the end of this message.

You can use this online form: http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/bos/BOSContactUs.htm
or call: 805-781-5450 (8am-5pm)

It’s also very important that we fill the board chambers with patients and advocates backing the program. Please attend Tuesday’s meeting to show your support for safe, legal and hassle-free access to medical marijuana. Feel free to contact me for meeting details.

Thank you for your support of this important program. Once implemented, not only will it reduce patients’ risk, it will also further strengthen California’s decade-old medical marijuana law.

Sincerely,
Aaron Smith
707-291-0076
safeaccessnow@gmail.com

SLO Board Meeting Time and Location:

Tuesday, August 1st – 2:00pm
(will be heard sometime after lunch recess)

County Government Center
1055 Monterey Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93408
Map: http://tinyurl.com/j5san

*This is a professional meeting; please dress in business or business/casual attire.

Feel free to use these talking points when addressing your county supervisor on this issue:

* The ID card protects patients and caregivers from lengthy detainment, arrest, seizure of property or unnecessary court proceedings. While patients are not required to participate in the ID card program, many choose to because they cannot afford the personal risk of wrongful prosecution that those without ID cards face.

* The ID card program will greatly assist law-enforcement in distinguishing patients with legitimate medical marijuana recommendations from those who are using false or counterfeit documentation. The county-administered ID program clarifies the current patchwork of patient documentation and frees our law enforcement and judicial system to focus on genuine criminal activity.

* The county will not incur any additional costs by implementing the ID card program because the county is allowed to set its own fees to recoup the start-up and operating costs. For example, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, implemented in 1999, was able to realize a $986,000 budget surplus after two years of operation. This also allowed the state to significantly reduce the fees imposed on patients.

* The county has a legal responsibility to the State of California to implement the program because it is a requirement of Senate Bill 420, passed into law in 2003

* Voters’ support of safe and legal access to medical marijuana has only grown stronger since the passage of the Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 215) in 1996. According to an independent field poll conducted in 2004, 74% of Californians support the implementation of our state’s medical marijuana laws.

‹ North Hollywood Collectives Needs Help - August 8, 2006 unincorporated ›

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Fri, 07/28/2006 - 12:12pm — Linda
Linda's picture

Attention SLO Patients

Hello MMJ Activists:

I want to thank F.Aaron Smith for all the hard work he has been putting towards the counties that still aren't in compliance with MMJ laws.

San Luis Obispo news reporter is getting ready to do a story on the MMJ issues in the county. F. Aaron Smith asked is looking for MMJ patients that are available for an interview early Monday morning July 31st. If anyone can possibly show up for this interview, please contact F. Aaron Smith to discuss times, locatation, ect.

Please contact Aaron Smith at 707-291-0076

Thanks for your help and support

'SOLANO PATIENTS' GROUP'
www.solanopatientsgroup.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SolanoPatientsGroup

Tue, 08/01/2006 - 11:01pm — Linda
Linda's picture

Congrats to SLO

Hello all MMJ Activist:

I received a call today from Aaron Smith. He had just left the SLO county board of sups meeting. Looks like we can add another complied county to the list. Congratulations to all the pateints in SLO, the county has finally decided to provide you with i.d. cards to help protect you from arrest. Way to go everyone who went out there to fight for your rights. Big thanks to F.Aaron Smith for all your assistance in helping these counties get complied.

Sincerely,
Linda Jimenez
Chairman of The Board
Compassionate Coalition
www.solanopatientsgroup.org
linda4spg@compassionatecoalition.org
707-635-3752

Wed, 08/02/2006 - 12:36pm — Linda
Linda's picture

SLO - Article in The Tribune

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispotribune/15178134.htm

Toni Paradis of Atascadero will no longer have to make the 500-mile
round-trip to Oakland to renew her disabled son’s medical marijuana
identification card because a local program will begin soon.

The Board of Supervisors directed the Public Health Department on
Tuesday in a 3-2 vote to implement a medical marijuana ID program as
mandated by state law. Supervisors Jerry Lenthall and Harry Ovitt
dissented.

Paradis said the ID program validates and protects legitimate medical
marijuana users such as her son, 26-year-old Matthew Green, who is
permanently disabled with spastic quadriplegia. Green uses marijuana
to control his movements, improve his appetite and sleep, Paradis
said.

"I don’t want people exploiting the system so they can smoke pot,"
she said.

A 2003 state law requires counties to issue cards to qualified
medical marijuana patients and their primary caregivers. Those names
then go into an online registry that law enforcement officers can use
to verify an ID card’s validity.

San Luis Obispo County will be the 21st in California to issue the
cards. The decision came two weeks after supervisors directed staff
to draft an ordinance regulating the sale and distribution of medical
marijuana in unincorporated areas.

"Since we do have medical marijuana dispensaries in San Luis Obispo
County, and we do have people authorized to use medical marijuana, it
only makes sense that we make this program available," Supervisor
James Patterson said.

There is one dispensary in the county, currently operating in Morro
Bay.

The supervisors discussed at length the discrepancies between state
and federal law regarding marijuana use. Federal law prohibits the
use or sale of marijuana. In 1996, California voters passed
Proposition 215 — also known as the Compassionate Use Act —
legalizing marijuana for medical use.

The county will recoup the costs for the program by charging between
$75 and $100 for the ID cards. The program limits the amount of
marijuana a person can have at one time to 8 ounces, six mature
plants or 12 immature plants.

Lenthall, who with Ovitt voted against creating a local ID program,
suggested waiting six more months to see if the California Attorney
General’s Office came out with an official opinion on whether
government employees who issue medical marijuana patient ID cards are
helping someone violate federal law.

County counsel advised the supervisors they should follow current
state law.

"If you have a discrepancy between federal and state law, the only
thing you can do is take the compassionate route," Supervisor Shirley
Bianchi said.

Thu, 08/03/2006 - 1:20pm — Aaron_Smith

SLO New Times article

Here is the New Times article:

http://www.newtimes-slo.com/index.php?p=showarticle&id=1907
County approves medicinal marijuana IDs
BY PATRICK M. KLEMZ

With a pair of county supervisors in favor of implementing a medical marijuana ID program and two more proposing a deferral, county board chairman Katcho Achadjian cast the deciding vote to provide long-awaited San Luis Obispo County validation to the 1996 Compassionate Use Act.

That piece of legislation, along with the subsequent Senate Bill 420, set a vague system of guidelines for the use of medicinal marijuana. Each county bears the responsibility of officiating the pharmaceutical flow within its borders.

Sound simple? Think again. In many ways, it frequently proves the most complicated pharmaceutical legislation on the state record.

The law's conflict with the federal Controlled Substances Act regularly triggers confusion among local law enforcement and county governments. In the decade since the original policy broke out of Sacramento and hit the streets, only 20 counties out of 58 have passed ID card programs to officially register patients as valid recipients of the medicine that state law entitles them.

In this county, the contradiction sometimes prompted police to confiscate marijuana as contraband and refuse to return it even after possession charges dissipated. Police have claimed that to comply with the Compassionate Use Act and return the property constitutes distribution under federal law. Such situations typically arise when a discrepancy exists between what patients and law enforcement officials view as proper documentation of a medical need for the marijuana.

The county courts recently declined a request to return marijuana seized from Arroyo Grande resident Kenneth Parson during a routine traffic stop in Grover Beach. Prosecutors dropped misdemeanor possession charges against him.

"This is a totally ridiculous situation," said North Coast supervisor Shirley Bianchi, who led the argument to approve the program now. "When facing a contradiction like this, the answer is to take the compassionate way out."

The ID card system provides county-sanctioned proof to patients verifiable by police with a simple call to the registry. In accordance with patient privacy laws, county staff reported, a bare minimum of information will be retained by the county to prevent the same patient from abusing the system by attaining multiple cards. Achadjian suggested taking the fingerprints of registered patients a concept shot down by county counsel.

Supervisors Jerry Lenthall and Harry Ovitt proposed holding off the program until the attorney general emerging from the Nov. 7 election offers a statement on the matter, or the decision arrives regarding a lawsuit by San Diego County challenging the state law. Neither situation promises a quick resolution or offers a definitive timetable for one. Lenthall suggested waiting six months before reexamining the matter.

"I don't see a compelling urgency to implement this program," Lenthall said.

He and Ovitt went on to argue that the county should, ideally, hold for dual solvency with the still-conflicting state and federal laws before moving on the program.

Bianchi responded that stalling the program would prevent responsible patients, fearful of police or DEA retribution, from seeking the medicine they need. County counsel added that SB420 mandated the eventual implementation of such a program, though no timetable exists.

"We can't decide as a county to comply with one state law and not another," county attorney James Lindholm opined.

Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers operator Charles C. Lynch and Santa Rosa lobbyist Aaron Smith pushed supervisors to drop the staff's recommendation of limiting card-carrying patients to 10 per primary caregiver. Lynch also suggested that the board increase the possession limit slightly beyond the state-mandated minimum to one pound of dried cannabis, and 12 mature and 24 immature plants.

The board passed the program with all of the staff's recommendations.

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