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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...s/12089127.htm

SAN FRANCISCO - California health officials suspended a program that had begun providing patients who smoke marijuana for medicinal reasons with state-issued identification cards because of concern about a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

State Health Director Sandra Shewry on Friday asked the state attorney general's office to review the court ruling to determine whether the ID program would put patients and state employees at risk of federal prosecution.

"I am concerned about unintended potential consequences of issuing medical marijuana ID cards that could affect medical marijuana users, their families and staff of the California Department of Health Services," Shewry said.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer said his office would review the health department's request, but noted that Lockyer already has stated that nothing in the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Gonzales v. Raich compels how California deals with the issue.

"He has said to law enforcement in some of the bulletins that have gone out that Raich does not impose a mandatory duty to enforce the federal controlled substances act against people who are using medical marijuana legally under California law," said spokeswoman Teresa Schilling.

Last month, the Supreme Court said in a 6-3 decision that people who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain or other conditions can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws. The ruling did not strike down laws in California and nine other states that permit medical cannabis use, but said federal drug laws take precedence.

Daniel Abrahamson, legal director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said Friday that state health officials are reacting with unnecessary alarm because in his view the Supreme Court opinion has no bearing on the legality of the state's identification program.

Complying with a state mandate that lawmakers passed after California voters approved a medical marijuana law in 1996, the state health department in May launched a pilot pot card program in three Northern California counties - Amador, Del Norte and Mendocino. One purpose of the cards is to give medical pot users a way to show they have a legitimate reason for possessing pot if they are stopped by law enforcement.

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