Pubdate: Thu, 17 Oct 2002
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Author: Ray Huard

S.D. CITY PANEL OKS MEDICAL POT RULES

Guidelines Need Council Approval

Medical marijuana guidelines that would allow sick people to keep up to 3 
pounds of the drug and grow up to 72 plants for their own use was approved 
by a San Diego City Council committee yesterday.

"I believe this is right. I believe it's right for suffering people to have 
some relief," said Councilman George Stevens.

The guidelines, adopted in a 4-1 vote by the Public Safety and Neighborhood 
Services Committee, also would allow caregivers who grow marijuana for up 
to six patients to keep as much as 12 pounds of marijuana and grow as many 
as 90 plants.

Councilman Brian Maienschein without comment voted against the guidelines, 
which must be approved by the full council to take effect. Committee 
chairman Toni Atkins said her goal was to bring the matter to the council 
in December.

The guidelines were recommended by a 12-member Medical Cannabis Task Force 
created by the City Council in 2001 to implement Proposition 215, a 1996 
state measure allowing the medical use of marijuana.

The council committee, following Atkins' advice, modified the task force's 
recommendations to include provisions against smoking marijuana in public, 
near schools, recreation centers or youth centers, or while operating a 
motor vehicle or a boat.

Minors, people on parole or probation and those convicted of a serious or 
violent felony could not become caregivers, under the committee's action.

The guidelines would be in place as a 24-month pilot program, after which 
they would be reviewed by the council, under the committee measure.

Atkins and others warned that the city guidelines would not protect 
patients from arrest by federal drug agents, who have been cracking down on 
medical marijuana users. San Diego activist Steve McWilliams, a former 
member of the city task force, was arrested last week on federal drug 
charges. Any use of marijuana is illegal under federal law.

Atkins said she hoped that city adoption of the guidelines would help lead 
to a resolution of the conflict between state and federal law.

"I certainly hope the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) isn't going to 
make hundreds of agents available to ferret out medical marijuana 
patients," Atkins said.

More than 100 people jammed the committee hearing, which lasted about three 
hours.

Critics, including police Chief David Bejarano and the San Diego Prevention 
Coalition, have said the guidelines were too vague, allow people to keep 
and grow too much and imply that the city condones the use of marijuana for 
any purpose.

No one from the Police Department testified at the hearing. But Bejarano, 
in a memo to Atkins, which she made public yesterday, said allowing people 
to grow and keep large quantities of marijuana would "attract theft and 
violence to neighborhoods and place patients and caregivers as well as the 
neighbors at risk."

The police chief also said only doctors should decide on a case-by-case 
basis how much marijuana each patient should have. In establishing a set 
amount of marijuana patients could keep without fear of arrest, Bejarano 
said the city would "promote abuse by criminals rather than compassionate 
use by the seriously ill."

The guidelines and a proposed city identification-card program expected to 
begin early next year are intended to give patients, those who care for 
them and police a sense of how much marijuana can be legally grown and 
stored, said task force chairwoman Juliana Humphrey.

Current police policy in deciding when to make an arrest is determined on a 
case-by-case basis.

"The person we have kept in our sights is the patient," Humphrey said.

Cancer patient Ann Shanahan-Walsh, a task force member, said she used 
marijuana with the encouragement of her oncologist to ease the side effects 
of chemotherapy.

"I was not a believer until I was able to see the benefits of it," 
Shanahan-Walsh said. "It doesn't make chemotherapy any easier but it makes 
it bearable."

Prevention Coalition president Dave Vialpando said the guidelines "have 
way, way too much potential for abuse and they need to be tightened up."

Among other things, Vialpando said 3 pounds was too much marijuana for 
someone to keep. Humphrey said 3 pounds was about a year's supply. She said 
patients needed the ability to keep that much because marijuana grown 
outdoors has one harvest season per year.

But Vialpando said doctors don't prescribe a year's supply of other drugs 
at a time and marijuana shouldn't be an exception.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alexandra Meyerson