San Bernardino Board Votes to Join S.D. Suit

While activists yesterday begged the county to drop its suit challenging the state's medical marijuana laws, the Board of Supervisors received unexpected support from colleagues to the north.

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors is joining San Diego County in its suit.

San Diego County filed suit in federal court Friday seeking to overturn Proposition 215, the voter-approved Compassionate Use Act, which allows possession and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in California. The county also wants the court to void a later law passed by the state Legislature that requires counties to create and maintain a database of medical marijuana users and issue identification cards.

The county says the state laws permitting medical marijuana conflict with federal drug laws. It also says California is in violation of a 1961 international treaty signed by the United States that puts responsibility for halting the flow of illegal drugs on each participating nation.

San Bernardino County officials said yesterday that they want a judge to decide the matter before they proceed with issuing identification to medical marijuana users.

"There is a conflict between state and federal law that must be resolved by the courts before the county feels it can move forward," according to a statement issued by San Bernardino board Chairman Bill Postmus.

Its county counsel, Ron Reitz, issued a one-paragraph statement following the unanimous, closed-session vote, saying the board had chosen to join San Diego County's lawsuit.

The American Civil Liberties Union also jumped into the fray yesterday, filing a motion to intervene in federal court, as promised, on behalf of patients who use marijuana to alleviate symptoms.

The ACLU contends that the county's analysis is flawed and the legal standard under which federal law would pre-empt state law has not been met. The ACLU also says the county has no standing to file suit against the state in federal court.

County Counsel John Sansone said: "We don't agree. The court will have to take it from there."

Kevin Keenan, the ACLU's executive director for San Diego and Imperial counties, said, "It's too bad that other politicians are smelling political capital and news attention to be had."

Referring to San Bernardino County's vote to join the lawsuit, Keenan said: "They'll be lucky if they get to court before it's dismissed. Legally, it's equally meritless."

The ACLU's court filing capped several days of pressure from medical marijuana advocates, who want San Diego County to withdraw its lawsuit.

Eight of them spoke to the supervisors at a board meeting yesterday, and a news conference denouncing the county's lawsuit was held later on the steps of the county administration building.

Since the matter wasn't on a published meeting agenda, supervisors didn't discuss it or take any action.

However, Supervisor Ron Roberts asked that activists stop sending letters protesting the lawsuit to his office. "I have not and I don't support this lawsuit," he said.

When the issue first came to the board in November, Roberts and Greg Cox were on the losing side of a 3-2 vote in which the other supervisors refused to implement the state's identification card program for medical marijuana users. Later, in closed session, the board voted 4-0 to sue the state, with Roberts absent.

After yesterday's meeting, Roberts elaborated: "I honestly feel strongly that if people are suffering from terminal illnesses and other serious problems that medical marijuana can be of use to them, and we ought to, in a professional way, make it available to them."

MEDICAL-MARIJUANA LAWS AND THE COURTS

1996: California voters pass an initiative allowing for the medicinal use of marijuana.

2003: California Legislature passes a law requiring counties to provide identification cards to registered users of medical marijuana.

2005: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the federal government's authority to arrest anyone using or possessing marijuana in the 11 states that have passed medical marijuana laws.

2006: San Diego County supervisors file suit in U.S. District Court in San Diego challenging state medical marijuana laws.

Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jan 2006
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Webpage: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060125-9999-1m25pot.html
Copyright: 2006 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact: letters@uniontrib.com
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Does not print LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Leslie Wolf Branscomb
Note: The ACLU's press release contains links to all the documents related to the case at
http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/medmarijuana/23587prs20060124.html
Cited: San Diego County Board of Supervisors
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/general/bos.html
Cited: San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors
http://www.co.san-bernardino.ca.us/bos.htm