The program allows patients to avoid local prosecution if caught possessing the drug. It is modeled on programs in Mendocino County and Arcata, which also pose a direct challenge to federal law. Californians legalized medical marijuana by approving Proposition 215 in 1996, but the measure has been entangled in legal disputes since. But things are different in San Francisco. Hallinan's stance on pot is shared, however, by a growing number of law enforcement officials elsewhere in Northern California, where attitudes toward marijuana have a decidedly mellow tone.
Doctors sign a form agreeing to monitor the patient's medical condition.
The cards are good for up to two years. Teen-agers can get them too, with approval from their parent or guardian. The Office of National Drug Control Policy refused to comment on the San Francisco program, but the agency has opposed medical marijuana initiatives, considering them to be a back-door route to legalizing marijuana. Rather, they commonly allow marijuana to be obtained without prescription and used indefinitely without evaluation by a physician. Also yesterday, a federal judge hinted he may be forced to allow an Oakland club to distribute medicinal marijuana because the U.S. Justice Department has not rebutted evidence that cannabis is the only effective treatment for a large group of seriously ill people.