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SAN FRANCISCO — Frustrated by the federal government’s determination to shut down medical marijuana clubs, San Francisco is thinking about growing its own. 

The city Board of Supervisors voted late Monday to put a measure on the November ballot that would have city officials explore growing marijuana on publicly owned lots and distributing it to ill patients. 

Supporters said such a program could double as job training for the unemployed. 

“I don’t think it would be all that dramatic a venture,” said Supervisor Mark Leno, who proposed the idea with three colleagues. 

The city already issues medical marijuana use cards to patients who have a doctor’s permission. California was the first state to approve medical marijuana with the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996. 

“The health department or some other entity would distribute it over their own counter,” Leno said Tuesday. “We already have 4,000 San Franciscans coming in to get medical marijuana ID cards, now they could also get their marijuana.” 

Leno said he drafted the proposal because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration remains determined to close down medical marijuana clubs in the city and across California. When DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson spoke here in February, Leno was protesting out front with a bullhorn. 

“If the federal government is going to continue to harass and shut down these clubs, then I think it’s the city’s responsibility to take action,” he said. 

Providing job training to unemployed or homeless residents would be “an added benefit to this project if, in fact, it happens,” said Board President Tom Ammiano. 

“If you don’t attempt these things there will never be any change,” he said. “We’ve got to give it a shot.” 

Still, hesitant to take on the federal government without being sure of their own political support, city supervisors voted to put the measure on the ballot. 

“Challenging federal law is a significant step for a city to take,” Leno said. “Before the elected body should do that, I think it’s important for voters to share their opinions. If 60 or 70 percent of voters say ’yes,’ the supervisors would be on very solid ground knowing that voters would be with us.” 

“We have a lot of land,” Leno added. “That’s not going to be a problem.” 

The problem is that cultivating, possessing and distributing marijuana are illegal under federal law. 

“Unless Congress changes the law and makes marijuana a legal substance, then we have to do our job and enforce the law, whether or not it’s popular,” Richard Meyer, a DEA spokesman in San Francisco. 

Meyer said if San Francisco began growing marijuana, it would be “business as usual. We’d conduct an investigation, collect the evidence and take appropriate action.” 

Pro-pot advocates in California have already faced a series of federal crackdowns that culminated when agents raided a medical marijuana club and arrested four people just hours before Hutchinson spoke. 

San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, who also protested Hutchinson’s speech, was unavailable for comment but has been outspoken in his support of the clubs. Police have refused to participate in any raids and last year city leaders declared San Francisco a sanctuary for medical cannabis use. 

Medical marijuana advocates lauded the ballot measure. 

“The real fight we’ve been having is distribution,” said Wayne Justmann, who’s been HIV positive for more than 15 years, carries the first city-issued ID card and operates one of San Francisco’s 11 remaining pot clubs. 

Canada and Holland already grow and distribute medical marijuana, said Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative. 

“I think San Francisco in some sense is a petri dish for what will happen for policy around the country,” said Jones, whose club was set up to dispense medical marijuana but stopped because of federal pressure.