SACRAMENTO (AP) — Gov. Gray Davis has signed a bill that will create a card for medical marijuana users to help protect them from arrest, but he vetoed another that would have let pharmacists sell up to 30 hypodermic needles without a prescription.

The rush of bill signings and vetoes capped a year that saw Davis, a Democrat, approve new laws that let undocumented immigrants get driver’s licenses, expand rights for domestic partners and mandate many businesses to provide health insurance for their workers.

Opponents of those three hotly debated new laws have filed papers to put referendums on the ballot to let voters determine whether the state should implement the laws.

Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger “will take a close look at new laws that Gov. Davis signed in recent weeks,” said Karen Hanretty, spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger.

Since he was recalled in the special election, Davis’ final wave of bill signings and vetoes was the source of much speculation whether he would approve a final wave of liberal legislation before Republican Schwarzenegger takes office in November.

Among the bills Davis signed was one by Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) that directs the Department of Health Services to provide medical marijuana users with a card that protects them from arrest.

The identification cards are designed to protect medical marijuana users from arrest by state and local law enforcement officers.

Proposition 215, approved by California voters in 1996, allows Californians with cancer, HIV and certain other chronic medical conditions to grow and use marijuana to ease nausea and other health problems, if a physician recommends it.

Cultivation, possession and use of marijuana remain a crime under federal law.

Davis vetoed another Vasconcellos bill, which aimed to reduce the number of AIDS cases by letting adults buy up to 30 hypodermic needles at a time without a doctor’s prescription.

Supporters of the bill say it would have reduced the sharing of needles by drug addicts, which would slow the spread of AIDS and other blood borne diseases.

In his veto message, Davis said the bill would have undermined one-for-one needle exchange programs already in place, and would weaken county oversight of such programs.