cannabisnews.com: Eureka Ponders Pot Policy





Eureka Ponders Pot Policy
Posted by FoM on November 20, 2000 at 16:07:09 PT
By David Anderson, Eureka Times-Standard
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal 
Supervisors here have asked the Humboldt County Health Department to work with the sheriff and district attorney to develop a program to identify legitimate medical marijuana users.They also voted 3-2, with supervisors Bonnie Neely and Paul Kirk dissenting, to ask their legal staff to draft a medical marijuana ordinance. Neely and Kirk said there is no immediate need for an ordinance, and that a less formal program should be worked out first between law officers and health officers.
District Attorney Terry Farmer and Sheriff Dennis Lewis both said they are willing to work with the Health Department to devise a system for issuing identity cards to people whose physicians have recommended marijuana as an antidote to illnesses. The recommendations would have to come from a local physician, or be confirmed by a local physician.More difficult, they said, is the question of who will be permitted to grow and distribute medical marijuana. Supervisors suggested that it be done through the cannabis center in Arcata, which is regulated by that city's police department.Several advocates of a medical marijuana ordinance protested that sheriff's deputies opposed to the concept are likely to sabotage any program not backed by a county ordinance. They cited past disputes, and a recent raid on a garden in Fieldbrook that was growing plants for the Arcata center, and whose owner had informed officers that he was doing so.Speakers said that discussions between county officials must include patients and caregivers, if the program is to have any hope of success. Until trust is established, they said, nobody will apply for the identity cards.Dr. George Jutila warned that few physicians are willing to prescribe marijuana to patients, because its safety has not been established by the Food and Drug Administration testing that other drugs must undergo.The strength of marijuana products varies so greatly, he added, that there is no sure way to control dosage, as is done with other pharmaceuticals.The board majority passed on to County Counsel Tamara Falor a proposed ordinance drafted by the advisory committee charged with studying means to bring the county into compliance with the 1996 voter-passed initiative. That proposal was reworded from an earlier draft, to take into account legal objections Falor raised in a report to the board in September.The proposed ordinance defines who is to be considered a qualified patient or a primary caregiver for the purposes of cultivating and providing medical marijuana, and establishes conditions for the cultivation, transportation and distribution of medical marijuana.Farmer in past has stressed his concern that medical marijuana provisions are likely to be widely abused by non- medical drug users. But on Tuesday he said county officials are near agreement on acceptable rules."There's a good deal of consensus now," he said. "I think we can come up with a program -- certainly we're much further along." Source: Ukiah Daily Journal (CA) Author: David Anderson, Eureka Times-Standard Published: November 20, 2000Copyright: 2000, Ukiah Daily Journal Contact: udj saber.net Address: 590 S. School St. Ukiah, CA 95482 Fax: (707) 468-5780 Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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