[420 Girl]

Next month, San Bernardino County will begin accepting applications from residents seeking medical marijuana cards.

On Tuesday, county supervisors formally adopted an ordinance to distribute cards, which is expected to begin Aug. 14. The county plans to charge patients a $166 annual fee to cover the costs of running the program. Medi-Cal patients will pay $83.

About 250 to 300 patients are expected to apply for cards, according to county estimates.

In May, The U.S. Supreme Court upheld California's medical marijuana law, forcing San Bernardino County to comply with it by issuing cards.

Riverside County patients pay a $153 annual fee for the cards. The county, which typically averages 350 applicants a year, has seen a surge in applications during the past few months, said Victoria Jauregui Burns, chief of the Department of Public Health's HIV program in Riverside County.

Statewide, more than 31,200 medical marijuana cards have been issued since 2004, according to the California Department of Public Health, which operates the program.

Applicants are patients diagnosed with serious medical conditions, such as AIDS, anorexia, arthritis, cancer, chronic pain and glaucoma. A doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana use must accompany all applications, as well as proof of county residency and identity and card fees.

The information is sent to the state Public Health Department, which enters it into a database. Law enforcement agencies can use the database to verify a card's validity.

Burns said it can take as many as three weeks for an applicant to receive a card. The process is sometimes delayed if doctors don't immediately confirm that they have issued an applicant's medical marijuana recommendation, she said.

The Riverside County Public Health Department does not track medical marijuana patients' information, such as age or medical condition.

"Even if we collected the data, we couldn't use it to judge the legitimacy of medical conditions," Burns said.

State law allows patients to possess, grow, transport and consume marijuana for medicinal use. But it doesn't protect patients from losing jobs if they test positive for marijuana use, according to a 2008 California Supreme Court ruling.

The case involved a Sacramento information infrastructure company, which terminated a prospective employee who failed a pre-employment drug test, despite a doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana.

Attorney Gregory Valenza, who represented the company, RagingWire Telecommunications Inc., said his client's case remains law until the federal or state government legalizes marijuana or classifies it as a prescription drug. Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have made it illegal for employers to consider an employee's marijuana use outside the workplace.

Considering California's financial crisis, Valenza said he doesn't expect changes to the law this year.

"Right now, the difference is in what is prescribeable," he said. "Marijuana is not prescribed. It is recommended. An employer can't take action against someone for using a prescription medication."

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