# Placer County OKs ID card for medical marijuana users



## FruityBud (Feb 7, 2008)

Medical marijuana patients in Placer County will be able to buy an identification card through a new fee schedule implemented for health services.

The schedule approved Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors institutes a $125 charge for the purchase of such a card.

Aaron Smith of the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington D.C.-based group, commended Placer for adopting the fee.

"We are very pleased that Placer County is moving forward with the state-mandated program and that local patients will be able to enjoy their full protections under California law," Smith wrote in an e-mail to The Bee.

Smith said that Placer is the 40th county in California to approve local implementation.

Under Proposition 215, which was approved by state voters in 1996, medical use of marijuana could be used by a patient if prescribed by a physician. However, federal agencies, which have not recognized the use of medical marijuana as legal, have occasionally raided medical marijuana shops and arrested users, Smith noted.

He said a subsequent law, Senate Bill 420, has attempted to clear up vague language in Proposition 215 and has allowed the creation of identification cards for qualified medical marijuana patients.

"People were being arrested, and then their cases were being dismissed in court," he said about the federal raids. "It was a burden on the taxpayers. Now a person will be able to show the ID card, and the county health department can verify that the person is a patient in good standing."

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/692466.html


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