"We are all just trying to reach common ground on how to deal with an extremely complex issue," said McCampbell, whose organization represents 7,000 narcotics officers across the state and opposed Proposition 215 during the 1996 campaign.

What remains to be seen is whether the group can devise ways to make the law work that will win Gov. Gray Davis’ support and not bring down the wrath of the federal government. Last year, the U.S. Justice Department won a court order shutting most of the state’s cannabis clubs on the basis that federal law—which says it is illegal to possess, sell or distribute marijuana—supersedes state law.

The Justice Department is skeptical of the work Lockyer’s medical marijuana task force is doing, but for now has no comment on its efforts.

"They are trying to implement a marijuana statute that the Department of Justice and the federal government believe to be illegal and unconstitutional," said one department source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Lockyer himself concedes that whatever recommendations his task force makes may not be fully implemented unless and until the federal government reclassifies marijuana as a drug with some therapeutic use.

"There are those who believe that the federal government will ignore a well-regulated state system," Lockyer said, "but I haven’t seen any evidence of that yet."

Davis has said that he voted against Proposition 215, but so far has made no public comment on Lockyer’s efforts. The attorney general said he doesn’t know whether the governor will support the task force’s recommendations.

Michael Bustamante, spokesman for Davis, said that the governor "respects the decision of voters with issues that come before the electorate, and clearly voters have spoken as it relates to the law."

Marijuana is smoked or ingested by people suffering a variety of ailments—including cancer, AIDS and spastic muscle conditions. Some doctors and patients say the drug quells nausea, eases pain and restores appetite.

Among the options the task force is considering is a proposal for a statewide registry of medical marijuana patients. The state Department of Health Services would create the registry and issue identification cards to medical marijuana users. The cards would indicate to local law enforcement officials that the bearer was using medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

The tiny Northern California town of Arcata employs such a system. Police Chief Mel Brown has issued about 100 identification cards to city residents who have met with him and given him their doctors’ names. After checking with the doctors, Brown said, he issued photo-identification cards bearing his signature.

"It keeps me from paying my officers overtime to show up in court, it keeps these people from being arrested, it keeps patients and doctors from being dragged into court," said Brown, who also is serving on Lockyer’s medical marijuana task force.

Proposition 215 allows patients who need marijuana to treat pain or ease other symptoms of a variety of illnesses to use it, with a doctor’s recommendation. But then-Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren and the federal government took a dim view of the law when it passed three years ago, charging that it was a ploy to legalize a federally banned substance.

Lungren personally—and successfully—crusaded to shut down the state’s largest club, operated in San Francisco by Proposition 215 author Dennis Peron. And Lungren welcomed the Justice Department’s assault on cannabis clubs in federal court.
See
Were Narks Sent to Coerce Eviction of San Francisco Club? Lungren Denies Pressuring Landlord

By October, there was only one large-scale marijuana distribution center still operating in California: Imler’s, which serves more than 500 people. The other clubs had been shut by the courts, but Imler’s low-key operation, his cooperation with local law enforcement and his tight screening procedures kept him out of trouble.

Medical marijuana users and providers had reverted to growing plants individually or buying the drug on the streets.

Days after he was sworn in, Lockyer said one of his top 10 law enforcement priorities was the implementation of Proposition 215. He formed the task force—chaired by state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) and Santa Clara County Dist. Atty. George Kennedy—in January and charged it with finding ways to safely provide patients with medical marijuana.

"Prop. 215 has gaps and ambiguities that make it difficult to implement," Lockyer said. "It can be amended, just like any other law. I would hope that the task force agrees on clarifying language that would provide more medical supervision of the program and answer local law enforcement’s desire to have clear rules." Amendments would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, but not a new ballot initiative.

Lockyer said the policy change is a priority because "the attorney general has a duty to try to effectuate the people’s will. And I voted for Prop. 215.

"Having watched my mom die of leukemia when she was 50 and a little sister die of leukemia when she was 39, it just always seemed odd to me that a doctor could give them morphine but couldn’t give them marijuana."

Lockyer said he also will lobby the federal government to reclassify the drug so that physicians can legally prescribe it. He is scheduled to attend a national conference of attorneys general in Washington this month.
See
Attorneys General From California And Other States With Medical Marijuana Laws
To Go To D.C. To Urge Rescheduling Of Cannabis

Justice Department spokesman Brian Steel said he had no comment on Lockyer’s approach. He said the department is reviewing medical marijuana laws passed in November in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona.

The federal government is set to release a report March 17, by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, on whether there is any medicinal value to smoking or ingesting marijuana. The long-awaited report—which surveys past research efforts and includes testimony from patients and doctors—is expected to say that there may be some medical benefits to some patients, but more research is needed. Some medical marijuana advocates see it as a first step toward federal reclassifying of the drug.
(Marijuananews note: Will government paid "scientists" actually favor more government paid research?)

In the meantime, they are applauding Lockyer for not waiting for a change in federal policy.

"Certainly, the change from the Wilson administration is dramatic," said Bill Zimmerman, executive director of Americans for Medical Rights and author of "Is Marijuana the Right Medicine for You?" The nonprofit organization campaigned for passage of Proposition 215 and has spearheaded medical marijuana campaigns in other states.
See
AMR: Every Place We Have Been on the Ballot We’ve Won. One Fifth of America Has Now Voted for
Medical Marijuana. It Is Time For The Drug Establishment to Listen to Common Sense.

Zimmerman says he met with Lungren after the proposition passed, "and I felt a little bit like Lucifer in that office." Now, he said, "patients and advocates feel they can get a hearing instead of having doors slammed in their faces."
(Marijuananews note: Actually, it was more like being in Lucifer’s office, but the fact is that Lungren demonized the medical marijuana movement.)

Zimmerman, who serves on the task force, says that many of the law enforcement officials who are participating introduced themselves at the first session by saying they had voted against the proposition but now were committed to making the law work.

"My own personal philosophy isn’t relevant," said Kennedy, the Santa Clara district attorney and co-chairman of the task force. "The law passed overwhelmingly. It doesn’t make any difference what my views are."

Karyn Sinunu, Kennedy’s deputy and chief of Santa Clara County’s narcotics unit, also serves on the task force, as does attorney Gerald Uelmen, who has represented cannabis clubs and their operators. Uelmen and Sinunu debate legal issues at the meetings, then square off in Santa Clara Superior Court, where Uelmen is representing a cannabis club operator charged with seven felonies.

"I don’t think it is particularly awkward," Uelmen said of serving with his court opponent.

A spokesman for Vasconcellos said the senator expects the panel to come up with recommendations by the end of April.
See
Los Angeles Times Prints Expanded Version Of State Senator Vasconcellos'
Defense Of Medical Marijuana: "Listen Up, Washington, the People Have Spoken"

"The primary goal of the senator is to ease the distribution crisis that occurred on Lungren’s watch," said Rand Martin, Vasconcellos’ chief of staff. "Nobody in their right mind can argue that voters thought that people with cancer were going to have to go out on the street and buy their drugs from dealers in dark alleys."