cannabisnews.com: MMJ Boosters Reversing History Isn't Easy!





MMJ Boosters Reversing History Isn't Easy!
Posted by FoM on July 11, 1999 at 10:08:53 PT
By Joe Frolik National Correspondent
Source: Cleveland Live
OAKLAND, Calif. - Jeff W. Jones doesn't want anyone to die the way his father did: shriveled in the agony of cancer and the nausea of chemotherapy.
Marijuana, which stimulates appetites and suppresses nausea, might have given his father some comfort and dignity, Jones contends. If only his South Dakota family had known that in 1988.If only it weren't illegal.In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, a law that protects those who use pot on a doctor's advice from criminal sanctions.Jones, who had come west to work in the fledgling medical marijuana movement, started the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative to supply patients here with the drug.But 21/2 years later, the quirky coalition of would-be drug legalizers, AIDS and cancer activists and social libertarians pushing marijuana as medicine has found that reversing six decades of prohibition is harder than passing a referendum.Especially since the federal government has been unwilling to relax its prohibition of marijuana for any purpose, no matter what the voters of California say.Last year, a federal judge ordered Jones to close; five other Northern California pot clubs were shut down as well. When Jones continued to sell marijuana to some of his 1,200 members, he was cited for contempt. For a time, marshals padlocked his downtown offices.He is back now, sponsoring seminars on marijuana as medicine, selling hemp products and certifying the medical status of those who may need a "215 defense." But come in search of pot, and Jones demurs. He can only refer people to other, less visible cannabis clubs. And to the street."I get these calls, these messages from people, some of them really angry," the slender, neatly dressed Jones said. "They've called me yellow, called me an opportunist for not continuing to fight on this issue. "I don't want to be locked up"They're out there struggling, getting no help from their government. I'm 24 years old, and I don't want to be locked up for 20 years. I'm frustrated my government's so out of touch."Mark A.R. Kleiman, a drug policy advisor to Presidents Bush and Clinton, thinks it is Jones and other advocates of medical marijuana who are out of touch. Although initiatives also have now passed in Arizona, Alaska, Washington and Oregon, they mean little, Kleiman said, because there is no legal way to obtain marijuana.Most of those initiatives allow patients or designated caregivers to grow pot - but cultivation remains a federal offense. And as far as clubs such as Jones', while Kleiman said they may be well-meaning, even useful, the fact is, "they're committing federal felonies every day."But if the medical pot lobby misjudged the impact of Proposition 215, so did its opponents, added Kleiman, a public policy professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.In 1996, both Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the Clinton administration's chief drug warrior, and Dan Lungren, then California's attorney general, warned 215 would legalize marijuana.Yet state statistics indicate marijuana arrests in California are essentially unchanged since 1996. So is pot use, including by teens, a group McCaffrey said would get a mixed message if states deviated from a "zero tolerance" approach to marijuana.Bill Lockyer, who succeeded Lungren in January, has tried to ease the antagonism between his state and Washington. He met with McCaffrey and Attorney General Janet Reno, urging them to reclassify marijuana to make it legal for doctors to prescribe and for legitimate pharmacies to stock. He also requested more leeway for California and other states that have passed medical marijuana laws.Response was mixed. In the aftermath of Proposition 215, Reno and McCaffrey threatened the prescription privileges of doctors who recommended marijuana.Now, officials emphasize the dangers of states bypassing federal drug approval procedures. They talk of doing more research on marijuana's potential benefits, though a McCaffrey-requested Institute of Medicine study this spring found evidence of usefulness for some ailments.In addition, while injunctions against Jones and the other clubs remain in effect, Lockyer has said he believes similar coops can avoid federal wrath if they operate discreetly."The attorney general is required to uphold the will of the voters," said Lockyer spokesman Nathan Barankin. "There's no exception for collisions with federal law."Lockyer also has appointed a 30-member task force including medical pot advocates, physicians, prosecutors and cops to figure how to make 215 work. It is focusing on three issues:- How to certify who is eligible to possess pot under 215?- How much marijuana can they have?- How do they get it?Privately, members say the first issue is relatively simple, the second is stickier, and the third may be impossible given federal law. Registry expectedObservers here generally expect the task force to propose a confidential registry, run by the state health department, to collect documentation and issue patient identification cards. That's being done already in Oregon and Alaska under terms of their voter-approved initiatives.Bill Zimmerman, head of Americans for Medical Rights and chief political strategist on the medical marijuana side, urged such provisions after seeing the difficulty California police were having determining who had a legitimate claim under 215.He notes that now in California, those who assert a plausible 215 defense are rarely charged in most major cities or along the coast. But in more rural and politically conservative areas, busts continue. Defendants have to wait for a trial to offer a medical defense."We wanted to create a system that would prevent people from getting arrested," said Zimmerman. "We're not there yet."They are in Arcata, 300 miles north of San Francisco, where pot-growing has unofficially anchored the local economy for decades. Police Chief Mel Brown started issuing 215 identification cards in 1997.Brown said he opposed 215 and would again. He complains that anyone who can find a willing physician can legally possess marijuana for virtually any ailment. (Last year's batch of state initiatives generally specified what conditions qualify for medical pot.)"You could be dying of AIDS or have a sore toe, and if you can find a doctor who'll write a note, we can't touch you," Brown said. "But I guess it's the same with Percodan or lots of other prescription drugs."Whatever his concerns, Brown had to enforce the law. To do that, he said, officers need a way to determine "in the middle of the night, in a dark alley, in the rain," if someone caught with marijuana can legally possess it. Hence the card. County starts registryMendocino County is also starting a registry. New district attorney Norman Vroman, is a Libertarian; the board of supervisors once passed a resolution welcoming the opening of Mel and Millie Lehrman's cannabis club (since closed by the feds)."As far as worrying about people who are growing it and using it for their personal, medical use," said Vroman, "we've got more important things to do."But how much does a person need? Proposition 215 offered no guidance.Medical marijuana proponents such as Dennis Peron, who founded the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club and helped draft 215, argue patients can possess whatever they think they need.No way, say law-enforcement officials. Chief Brown's limit is 10 plants; if his officers find a card-carrying patient with more, they confiscate the excess. Vroman said Mendocino's limit will be 12 plants or two pounds of harvested herb.Robert Raich, Jones' attorney and a member of Lockyer's task force, says those figures are too low. He argues the limit should be closer to six pounds, roughly what the federal government furnishes annually to the eight patients who started receiving it during a little-publicized trial program in the 1970s.The issue will be critical this month when Steve and Michele Kubby, publishers of an on-line adventure skiing magazine, go on trial for cultivation. A federal-state-local task force busted them in January with 265 pot plants in their home near Lake Tahoe.As Libertarian Party nominee for governor last year, Steve Kubby spoke often of the marijuana use he believes has enabled him to live for 23 years with a rare form of adrenal cancer. His cardiologist, Dr. Vincent De Quattro of the University of Southern California Medical School, said he knows of no other reason why Kubby has survived so long."[Marijuana- is the only drug he's talking," said DeQuattro.Placer County prosecutors contend the Kubbys had more pot than they could possibly use. (Michele Kubby claims she, too, uses marijuana to relieve a chronic bowel problem). Steve Kubby concedes they had a large garden, but says he and his wife did not want to tend a smaller crop year-round. Nor did they dare run out."How much medicine," he said, "is too much for us to have to keep us alive?"The Kubbys, of course, could not legally buy marijuana, which even ardent supporters concede is the great limitation of Proposition 215 and its political offspring. Geoff Sugarman of Oregonians for Medical Rights, which waged its successful campaign in 1998, says small-scale cultivation is the best alternative. Oregon's limit is seven plants."We didn't want something that illegal growing operations could hide behind," he said. "Our system keeps the amount small enough that [patients- can fly under the radar of the federal government."Peron, the one-time pot dealer whose club had more than 10,000 members, says that is what he always intended. He now lives north of the Napa Valley, on an isolated farm where he and friends are nursing about 200 plants. He calls their pot plantation "215 personified." Antagonists invitedWhen the ever-brash Peron threw a housewarming party, he invited his old antagonists from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Agents pulled up the plants and left. "They didn't even stay for food," tut-tutted the silver-haired, deeply tanned Peron, who promptly planted another crop."We never mentioned sales in 215," he said. "I figured cultivation would be the way to go and I was right. Patients can cultivate marijuana and get off the black market."Scott Imler thinks growing your own may be fine for some users. But the lanky director of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center says many who come to his West Hollywood site are too sick to garden.Besides, growing pot is not easy, Imler contends. He and his staff watched insects devour their first crop. They now have about 150 plants thriving in a windowless room, presided over by an experienced nurseryman.But with 621 active members, Imler still goes to the black market for about a third of the club's supplies; last year, according to its annual report, the club bought 51.2 pounds."It's really dangerous and risky," said Imler. "But we have no choice."Imler runs an exclusive club: The Los Angeles Times quoted a DEA agent as saying they once tried to infiltrate, but were rebuffed. ID's are checked at the door. Sales, logged on a computer, are limited to 21 grams a week. Though smoking's permitted, joints cannot be shared."It's a no-passing zone," said Imler, who wants to avoid the bacchanal scene of Peron's pot pub.Like most in the medical marijuana effort, Imler hopes the federal government will revise its pot policy. Until then, he said, clubs like his will remain."Despite the uneven implementation in this state, a lot of people have been helped by 215," he said. "Yes, it wasn't perfect. No, we didn't set up a well-regulated system of distribution. All we could do was see that patients and their families have certain rights when they're sick."Phone: (216) 999-4548 e-mail: jfrolik plaind.com © 1999 Cleveland Live. All rights reserved. Please read and understand our Online User Agreement and Privacy Policy. Newshawk: spirit
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