CLEARING THE AIR?

Pot Law Divisive Year After It Passes

More than a year after voters ushered in California's controversial medical
marijuana law, those who use the drug to soothe their ailments still are
caught in the smoky crossfire between hardnosed prosecutors and unabashed
pot advocates.

Armed with a doctor's written permission to use marijuana, thousands of Bay
Area residents with AIDS, glaucoma, cancer, arthritis and other painful
diseases continue to toke up while the official sanctioning of
voterapproved Proposition 215 wends its way through the courts and the
state's local governing bodies.

The battle tide turned again Dec. 12 when the California 1st District Court
of Appeal barred cannabis clubs from selling marijuana to patients because
they do not meet the measure's criteria of a "primary care giver."

The court's ruling on the thorny issue of distributing medical marijuana
highlights the haziness of Prop. 215 an initiative even the author now
concedes was purposely vague.

According to Presiding Justice J. Clinton Peterson, "if the drafters of the
initiative wanted to legalize the sale of small amounts of marijuana for
approved medical purposes, they could have easily done so."

Standing on the sidelines for now is the California legislature, which
typically passes "enabling" laws following the passage of ballot
initiatives. Legislators have shown a reluctance to establish any statewide
policies for enacting Prop. 215, leaving the task of interpreting the vague
measure to local politicians.

Where cannabis clubs do operate, their methods of distributing medical
marijuana largely reflect the tolerance of the local elected officials who
have allowed them.

In San Mateo County, Board of Supervisors President Mikc Nevin wants The
County to be the sole supplier and regulator of medical marijuana. The
former San Francisco police officer envisions countyrun pharmacies that
distribute to the sick marijuana confiscated by police. County law
enforcement agencies currently plan to destroy $165,000 worth of marijuana
being held in evidence.

"Proposition 215 didn't have a complete package to answer the question of
distribution and cultivation," Nevin said. "There's a control problem. And
since we haven't gotten a lot of leadership at a state level, local
government is left to figure it out."

Up north in the Humboldt County college town of Arcata Police Chief Mel
Brown personally approves identification cardsbearing the city seal for
eligible patients. "If somebody would have told me two years ago that I'd
be giving out ID cards to carry marijuana, I'd said they were crazy," Brown
said. "But life changes."

Marin County's health and human services director Thomas Peters has
proposed a countywide verification system similar to Arcata's.

"We're on uncharted and uneven terrain.'' he said. "A pervasive uncertainty
has been allowed to linger a full year after the passage of the proposition."

Other counties; however, have taken a hardened stance against the law.

City councils in Concord and Palo Atto have passed urgency ordinances to
prevent any marijuana dispensing establishments from opening in their
communities.

"This was a thinly disguised effort to legitimize the wholesale production
and distribution of marijuana under the guise of helping sick people."
Nevin said. "There's a control problem. And since we haven't gotten a lot
of leadership at a state level, local government is left to figure it out."

Meanwhile, until stopped from doing otherwise, smokers such as Max Gorgal
will continue to seek relief where they can. The 55yearold New York
native, who has had arthritis for 30 years, has found since arriving in the
Bay Area last May that buying and smoking marijuana to lessen his pain is
much easier.

"Every time I buy an ounce in New York, I wonder if I'm gonna be hauled off
to SingSing.'' Gorgal said while painting the interior of the San
Francisco Cannabis Cultivators Club, "Here, it's fine."

Similar sentiments were expressed by Frederick Demchuk, a 59yearold
father of six who suffers from chronic arthritis and prefers marijuana over
ibuprofen. Pot is a more effective pain killer and doesn't cause the
sweating and jitteriness that popping four of the overthe counter pills at
a time does, he said.

"Whether you call it marijuana or medicine . . . you know what's good for
you," the San Jose technical writer said between quick tokes from a small
blue bong at the San Francisco cannabis club.

At the two extremes of the great marijuana debate are State Attorney
General Dan Lungren, who casts himself as a lawandorder champion in
fighting Proposition 215 tooth and nail, and San Francisco cannabis club
owner Dennis Peron, who wrote the measure and has made it no secret he also
favors the legalization of pot for everyone.

Since campaigning for the initiative as a strictly compassionate way of
helping desperately ill people, Peron now freely declares that "all use of
marijuana is medical.... It cheers people up that's a medical reason."

As he sits at a desk strewn with several pipes and potstuffed plastic
bags, Peron, 51 who cites alcoholism as his reason for smoking marijuana
said he intentionally made the proposition's language vague.

"The sore losers said the people were tricked," Peron said. "But the
marijuana laws are no more ambiguous now. and they're on the side of the
people especially sick people."

Although Proposition 215 allows the use of pot to relieve the pain and
nausea of 'seriously ill Californians,' it also cites 'any other illness
for which marijuana provides relief.' Peron is trying to use that semantic
opening to push the full legalization of marijuana.

Peron, whose club was raided and shut down for several months last year,
disputes Lungren's charges that minors were allowed inside his club and
that street dealers bought pot there to resell on the streets. Yet he is
steadfast in operating the club under a loose interpretation of Proposition
215.

To buy pot there, patients need only acquire a doctor's 'letter of
diagnosis' of a condition marijuana can alleviate. And although it is
filled with sick people, the club's atmosphere pulsating music, nightly
entertainment. social smokingoffers a glimpse of Amsterdam, where pot use
is legal for everyone.

After opening in 1992 with 75 percent of its members HIV positive, the San
Francisco club now figures that the majority of its 8.000 members today
have other maladies. including cancer, chronic pain. anxiety and hypertension.

Lungren acknowledges he is in the awkward position of enforcing a law he
strongly opposed. In his interpretation, Proposition 215 allows someone who
really is sick to grow a couple of marijuana plants and gives researchers
permission to study the drugs effectiveness.

Nevertheless, he promises to continue trying to shut down Peron's marijuana
club, over the objection of San Francisco's district attorney.

"A major concern still is that it sends a bad message to kids." said
Lungren's spokesman.