cannabisnews.com: Calaveras Reconsiders Pot Use Calaveras Reconsiders Pot Use Posted by FoM on October 21, 2000 at 16:00:39 PT By Francis P. Garland, Lode Bureau Chief Source: Stockton Record A set of medical marijuana-use guidelines that Calaveras County supervisors rejected last month will be reconsidered when the board meets Monday. A board-appointed task force developed the guidelines during the course of four meetings over six months and made its recommendation more than six weeks ago. But the board rejected the so-called interagency protocol, designed to help law enforcement officials determine which cases of marijuana possession would be considered for personal medical use and which would be considered illegal possession and/or cultivation. The passage of Proposition 215 in 1996 legalized the use of marijuana to treat certain illnesses. But since the state never developed guidelines to implement the law, some counties and cities have created their own. The local task force, which included doctors, pharmacists, law enforcement officials and one medical-marijuana user, developed a protocol recommending that those with a legal right to marijuana for medicinal purposes could possess six plants and 1.3 pounds of processed marijuana at any one time. Those numbers represented a significant reduction from suggestions at a previous task-force meeting, at which the group had recommended 30 plants and 4 pounds of processed marijuana would be considered legitimate amounts for bona fide medical-marijuana patients. Supervisors Merita Callaway and Lucy Thein voted to support the protocol when it was presented Sept. 5, but board Chairman Tom Tryon and Supervisors Paul Stein and Terri Bailey voted against it. Tryon turned it down because he said the protocol would have been more restrictive on medical-marijuana users than no guidelines at all. Tryon and Callaway asked to have the guidelines come back for reconsideration at Monday's 10 a.m. meeting at the Government Center. "I'd like to do something," Tryon said, referring to the guidelines, "but I'd like it to be meaningful. The question is, can we find enough middle ground for three of us to vote on something?" Callaway said she's willing to support guidelines that allow for more than six plants and 1.3 pounds of processed marijuana. "There are people out there close to dying who could use something," she said, referring to the guidelines. "But what that magic number is, I don't know." In addition to setting limits on the amount of marijuana a legitimate medical user could possess, the proposed protocol would require patients to secure a doctor's recommendation that includes the date of the recommendation, the patient's illness, a prescribed or recommended dosage, quantity and frequency of usage and duration of the recommendation, complete with a semiannual review for medical necessity. David Jack, an Angels Camp medical-marijuana user and a task-force member, said the protocol represented a violation of a patient's civil rights. "My feeling has always been, this is a medical issue, not a law enforcement issue," he said. "It's between the patient and the physician. When law enforcement comes in, you lose that patient/physician privilege." Note: Medical-marijuana task force sets limits on possession* To reach Lode Bureau Chief Francis P. Garland, phone 736-9554 or e-mail garnel goldrush.com Source: Record, The (CA)Author: Francis P. GarlandPublished: Saturday, October 21, 2000Copyright: 2000 The RecordContact: editor recordnet.comAddress: P.O. Box 900, Stockton, CA 95201Fax: (209) 547-8186Website: http://www.recordnet.com/Related Articles:Medical Marijuana Task Force Debates Amount http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6813.shtml New Panel Faces Medical Pot Issue http://cannabisnews.com/news/4/thread4562.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #1 posted by mungojelly on October 22, 2000 at 05:07:05 PT: what about doctors, eh? A simple solution to the "how much is too much" problem occurs to me: the same solution we use to that problem for every other controlled medicinal drug, allow the doctor to decide. Why hasn't this occured to someone already? Are they afraid that there are going to be doctors writing out notes saying "this patient needs 6,000 pounds of marijuana to treat their condition, wink wink nudge nudge" and taking kickbacks? Or they still don't believe that this is "really" a medical issue, which should be handled by qualified professionals? mungojelly [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: