SUPERVISORS RIGHT TO QUESTION MEDICAL MARIJUANA

As members of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, we recently
voted to clarify the laws surrounding implementation of Proposition
215, an initiative authorizing medical marijuana identification cards.

State law says the sale of marijuana to medicinal users is legal.
Federal law says it is illegal. My colleagues and I on the board
voted not to distribute user cards. Later we voted to challenge state
implementation of the law.

The courts will now decide whether federal law pre-empts or
supersedes state law. That's the clarification we need. Holding a
card may give medicinal users a false sense that what they are doing
is legal. Additionally, the board might very well be in violation of
federal law if we distribute the cards.

Tuesday's troublesome events shed more light on this issue. Federal
agents executed search warrants on 13 medical marijuana dispensaries
in the cities of San Diego and San Marcos. Since the latter city was
once known to law enforcement officials and newspapers as the
Methamphetamine Capital of the World, the proliferation of marijuana
dispensaries there should make anyone sit up and take notice.
Apparently, marijuana, easy to grow and cost-efficient, and now
tacitly "legal," is a more lucrative trade. For there to be 13
illegal dispensaries already in business begs the question, where's
the oversight?

Most telling was that a state judge issued the warrants and federal
agents raided the dispensaries. This is precisely the quandary about
mixed authority that prompted the Board of Supervisors to seek
clarification of this issue.

Should you have any remaining questions about the effect of medical
marijuana dispensaries on law enforcement and our neighborhoods, I
urge you to discuss them with the sheriff and other law enforcement
officials. Our public safety agencies have a tremendous problem with
these outlets.

Frankly, if this was really a legally approved drug you would go to a
pharmacy to buy your prescription.

In closing, the state has at its disposal many ways to issue medical
marijuana ID cards. For instance, driver's licenses or Medi-Cal cards
could be altered to signify allowed use.

Establishing political cover by forcing local governments to
challenge state law is not the answer.

Pam Slater-Price is chairwoman of the county government's Board of Supervisors.