MEDICAL-POT GUIDELINES MIGHT OK LESS THAN 3 POUNDS

The amount of marijuana that sick people could keep to ease their
symptoms will likely be less than the three pounds a citizens task
force recommended, when proposed guidelines go to the San Diego City
Council for review next month.

"We should start at a smaller amount," said City Councilman Ralph
Inzunza Jr., one of the strongest council advocates for adopting
guidelines for medical use of marijuana.

Inzunza and Councilwoman Toni Atkins, also a medical marijuana
supporter, said too many people, including Mayor Dick Murphy, oppose
allowing people to keep that much marijuana on hand, even if it is
for medical use.

Atkins said the amount of marijuana someone can keep is less
important than providing patients with some assurance they won't be
arrested by local police for using a drug recommended by their
doctor. The guidelines would provide no protection against arrest by
federal agents.

A citizens' Medical Cannabis Task Force formed by the council in 2001
to implement Proposition 215 - a 1996 ballot measure that allowed the
medical use of marijuana but set no guidelines - has recommended that
sick people be allowed to keep up to three pounds of marijuana upon a
doctor's recommendation.

"There is room for compromise," said Juliana Humphrey, head of the task force.

Humphrey said the task force recommended three pounds because that is
about a one-year supply for someone using the typical dosage
recommended by doctors - three to five cigarettes per day. She said
patients need a year's supply at once because marijuana has only one
growing season in San Diego.

Critics oppose the guidelines, saying they send a message to young
people that using marijuana is acceptable in San Diego.

"This is drug legalization," said John Redman, executive director of
the San Diego Prevention Coalition. "If you increase availability,
increase access, you will increase substance abuse. If you decrease
the perception of risk you will increase use. These guidelines do
both."

Council adoption of the guidelines is far from certain, with five
votes needed to pass the plan. The council is tentatively scheduled
to review the proposal Feb. 4.

The council's Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee voted
4-1 in October to recommend that the full council approve the
guidelines. The committee's makeup has since changed. Brian
Maienschein, who voted against the guidelines in the committee, was
appointed chairman in December by Mayor Dick Murphy.

Elected in November, Councilmen Charles Lewis and Michael Zucchet
said they haven't made up their minds on the guidelines.

Zucchet said, "I do support the city doing something to follow the
will of the voters with Proposition 215." But he said he wasn't
certain how much marijuana someone should be able to keep or who
should be allowed to grow it.

Lewis said he supports medical marijuana in concept but was troubled
by the task force recommendation on allowing patients up to three
pounds.

Councilman Scott Peters, who voted for a trial needle-exchange
program for intravenous drug users as a health measure, said he
opposes the medical marijuana guidelines in their current form.

Peters said the medical community was solidly behind the needle
exchange program as a way to reduce the spread of blood-borne
diseases.

But he said doctors are divided on the value of medical marijuana.

"It's my job to look out for the quality of life of people in my
district, and I don't see how this proposal helps support that,"
Peters said.


Pubdate: Tue, 21 Jan 2003
By Ray Huard
STAFF WRITER
San Diego Union-Tribune
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/tue/metro/news_1m21medpot.html