[420 Girl]

Medical marijuana users can exhale a sigh of relief that their driver's licenses will not be revoked or suspended if they have a doctor's permission to use cannabis.

The Department of Motor Vehicles has advised in a memo to its safety officers, who evaluate whether someone's license should be restricted, that medical marijuana should be treated the same as any other legal prescription drug, and that medical marijuana use "does not in itself constitute grounds for a license withdrawal action."

Armando Botello, a spokesman for the DMV, said that the department's policy, which also addresses physical or mental conditions, has not changed. However, a section about medical marijuana was added to the memo, originally written in 2001, he said.

Still, a medical marijuana advocacy group, Americans for Safe Access, said in a news conference Wednesday that the DMV's updated memo is a "significant departure from how the agency approached medical marijuana in the past."

The Oakland-based organization's chief counsel, Joe Elford, said he filed a lawsuit against the DMV on behalf of Rose Johnson, 53, of Atwater, in November, claiming her license was taken away based solely on the fact that she uses marijuana to treat back problems, stemming from an auto crash.

Johnson said that while taking her renewal written test last year, a DMV employee saw her shaking, prompting a medical hearing to see if she was fit to drive. Once Johnson admitted to DMV officials that she was a medical marijuana patient, she was told that her license would be revoked.

Johnson's driving privileges have since been restored.

Botello said the DMV would not comment on the pending lawsuit but issued the following statement:

"There has been no change in the DMV policy regarding medical marijuana. The internal training memo simply updates an old memo issued in 2001 that did not specifically mention medical marijuana… The DMV policy is, and has been, that the department treats medical marijuana exactly the same as any other prescription drug, and that we do not automatically revoke the licenses of those who have a prescription for medical marijuana."

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