Medical Marijuana: California Task Force Proposes Registration System; Hearing Set for July 13

A task force set up by California Attorney General Lockyer will propose that the State Department of Health Services "shall establish and maintain a voluntary program for the issuance of registry identification cards" to patients, to protect them and a designated caregiver from arrest under California law. (This state system cannot affect Federal law, but state law accounts for most medical-marijuana arrests.) Our understanding is that the program is "voluntary" in that it would not prevent those who do not have the cards from seeking protection in court through California's Proposition 215--the medical-marijuana initiative passed by the voters, but not implemented because of unrelenting hostility from the state's previous governor and attorney general. In much of California today, even obviously ill patients with a doctor's recommendation are routinely arrested, a policy set by the previous administration.

At least one medical-marijuana organization--Californians for Compassionate Use/Lake County Cannabis Farm--has opposed this plan, for several reasons including that it would require a recommendation from a California (not out-of-state) physician in order to issue a card, would require the state health department to specify a maximum amount of marijuana that could be grown or possessed, and would require annual re-application and fees. But supporters see the plan as a remarkable product of consensus and cooperation between law enforcement (which wants a "bright line" between medical and recreational use) and patients (who want freedom from arrest and prosecution).

The task-force recommendations would allow registered patients to work together collectively to grow marijuana, but would not allow a county to designate an organization which distributes medical marijuana to administer the registration-card system. Besides the patient and doctor, a caregiver role is also recognized because many of the patients are too ill to grow their own marijuana, and no one will be allowed to sell it to them.

The Task Force plan is expected to become SB 848, which is set for a committee hearing in the legislature on July 13.


Comment

This proposal was made public only recently, and we saw it as we went to press, so we have not been able to research it further, and do not know the positions of the various medical-marijuana organizations or advocates. Ordinarily we would have delayed this report for our next issue, but that would be too late to inform our readers before the scheduled hearing date of July 13.

This proposal could change for better or for worse, or be killed entirely, in the legislative process. It is important that those most affected--patients who may need medical marijuana--be involved.