[420 Girl]

San Bernardino County no longer has any reason to defy state rules on medical marijuana. The U.S. Supreme Court this week ended the county's politically driven crusade against the law. And the justices scrapped any remaining justification for the county's stalling on medical marijuana.

The county should start by issuing ID cards to patients with a valid claim to medical marijuana, just as other California counties have done. County officials may object to the idea of legal marijuana, but that fact does not spare the county from obeying the law.

And county officials have no more excuse for balking on an issue settled by voters and the courts. Voters legalized marijuana for medical uses with Prop. 215 in 1996. A 2003 state law setting regulations on medical pot requires counties to issue the cards, which identify legal users.

But three years ago, San Bernardino and San Diego counties challenged the law in court, contending that federal law against marijuana use trumps state law. State courts rejected that argument, ruling that the counties could enforce state law without violating federal law. And this week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the counties' appeal, leaving the lower court rulings intact.

The end of the case means taxpayers will no longer have to foot the bill for the county's wasteful campaign against medical marijuana. The county's objections to the law always had more to do with political posturing than any legal issue.

And the revelations of the past year about the misconduct in the county assessor's office under Bill Postmus suggest that county government has more crucial challenges than preventing the ill from smoking pot. But the county always had better uses for its time and money than waging a political war on state law.

The voters and now the courts have spoken. San Bernardino County should comply, and move on to more pressing public needs.

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