Marin County State Card Program Suspended
by Robyn Few

On March 1st, the Marin County Board of Supervisors (BOS) will
suspend the Medical Marijuana State Card Program in Marin until the
price controversy is settled. The Marin County BOS are following the
lead of San Francisco BOS in protesting the medical marijuiana state
card price hike. In the meantime, patients will suffer.

Police enforcement in Marin varies throughout the county with the
Novato police being named as the harshest on patients. Recently, a
patient reported that his medicine was confiscated by a Novato police
officer. The officer asked the patient for verification, when shown
the Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative (OCBC) card the officer
responded with, we don't except that card in Marin County and
immediately stomped the medicine into the ground. The patient was not
ticketed.

Another incident reported by a patient in San Rafael ended in the
patient being handcuffed and taken to jail. The patient was pulled
over on a suspended license, after the car was searched and the
medicine found the OCBC card was produced. The officer decided that
the hash the patient carried in a Marin Alliance for Medical
Marijuana baggie was not marijuana but a different controlled
substance. While handcuffing the patient behind her back, she
screamed in pain begging the officer to please handcuff her in the
front, to no avail. When the patient was taken to jail, a female
officer confirmed that the patient was covered with burn scars under
her clothes and requested that she not be placed in jail.

Without the state or county card program, patients are forced to go
to other agencies and have their recommendations verified. Police in
Marin county use the state and county card program as a tool, if a
patient doesn't produce the Marin paperwork, they can possibly go to
jail and they can definitely lose their medicine. Please help support
patients in Marin County by calling or emailing the Marin County
Board of Supervisors at
<mailto:bos [at] co.marin.ca.us>bos [at] co.marin.ca.us or Phone: (415)
499-7331 Fax: (415) 499-3645
<http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/BS/main/index.cfm>http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/BS/main/index.cfm

Please ask Marin County BOS to inform the police to accept a
verification program used in Alameda County and around the state. The
Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative has been in business verifying
cards since 1999 ( <http://www.rxcbc.org/>http://www.rxcbc.org/ ) and
they are a legitimate card verification program. Please protect the
patients by informing the police officers of Marin county about this
important verification program. As long as there is no verification
program in Marin County the patients will suffer at the hands of the
police. Please protect sick and dying patients.