While Vi is correct that you don't HAVE to get a an official card in order to be protected, I would still recommend making the drive to Oakland to get one. It just makes things easier. Most clubs accept the card as the only piece of "stand alone" i.d. that you need in order to get in. Also, you are a lot less likely to have a hard time with law enforcement if you have the card; most cops know about the card and how it works, but they aren't real impressed with a note from a doctor, and they will take your weed and arrest you anyway.

As far as your employer, that area of the law remains to be tested. I have a friend who applied for work with the Dept of Corrections, and self-disclosed that he was a medical pot user. He was automatically disqualified. I don't think it will be long before this aspect of medicinal use is tested in court.

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"There is a general place in your brain, I think, reserved for 'melancholy of relationships past'. It grows and prospers as life progresses, forcing you finally, against your better judgment, to listen to country music".- Kary Mullis, Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry