cannabisnews.com: California Bed & Breakfast Puts MMJ Into Practice





California Bed & Breakfast Puts MMJ Into Practice
Posted by FoM on April 23, 2000 at 06:48:42 PT
By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
Source: The Sun News
Andrea Tischler is perched atop ground zero of California's escalating medicinal-marijuana wars. She and a partner on Thursday opened the nation's first ``bed, bud and breakfast,'' a cozy Victorian inn with a backyard oasis where medicinal-pot users can fire up right next to the clothing-optional hot tub. 
``This inn will be a comfort zone for people with a medical need for marijuana,'' said Tischler, a former schoolteacher. ``While it may be the nation's first, many more will follow.'' The Compassion Flower Inn opened on the heels of a new city ordinance here that allows people with diseases such as AIDS, cancer and arthritis to legally grow and use pot. Defying federal authorities, Santa Cruz is one of several California communities that has jump-started efforts to put the state's controversial medicinal-marijuana law into practice. State voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996 to permit the sick to obtain marijuana under a doctor's care. But federal prosecutors stepped in and closed down six cannabis buyers clubs in Northern California, saying marijuana use is still illegal under U.S. law. State legislators have steered clear, backing off of a proposal for a statewide cardholder system that would allow registered medicinal-marijuana users, providers and growers to avoid arrest. ``This issue has been a political hot potato, and it's been hard for state officials to reach any consensus,'' said Anthony Condotti, assistant city attorney in Santa Cruz. ``So cities and counties at the grass-roots level have taken the lead.'' Both the Santa Cruz law and the new bed and breakfast are being closely monitored, not only by cities statewide, but by the Clinton administration. ``Our position continues to be that marijuana remains a prohibited controlled substance,'' said Gretchen Michael, a U.S. Department of Justice spokesman. ``What we say to people in Santa Cruz is that no matter what laws you pass, the federal government could still come knocking.'' Santa Cruz city council member Mike Rotkin said the city is not looking for a fight with the federal government. ``But the need for this law is so great, it's worth the risk,'' Rotkin said. ``How do you tell a cancer patient enduring painful chemotherapy they can have morphine but not marijuana. It's just so illogical.'' The Santa Cruz ordinance was inspired by Valerie Corral, a medicinal-marijuana user who has long provided free pot to dying friends and relatives. Since 1993, operating from a secret and isolated mountainside location, she has helped run the nonprofit WO/MEN's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which has dispensed the drug free of charge to more than 200 sick and terminally ill patients around Santa Cruz. ``To make this concept palatable to the feds, we've got to take the profiteering out of medicinal marijuana,'' said Corral, who said she regularly smokes pot to counteract the pain from epilepsy. She was a member of a medicinal-marijuana task force created last year by state Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Corral approached Santa Cruz city officials in 1998 about a new law and won their backing. She is now lobbying Santa Cruz County officials to approve a similar law. ``If enough communities follow suit with a patchwork of different medical-pot laws, state legislators will have to step in and bring some order to implementing Prop 215,'' Rotkin said. Proposition 215 did not set standards for the amount of marijuana medicinal users could have in their possession. In Mendocino County, authorities have devised their own numbers: Patients can apply to the county Health Department for an identification card that allows them to possess up to six marijuana plants and 2 pounds of marijuana. ``That may sound like a lot, but marijuana is a once-a-year crop,'' said Mendocino County District Attorney Norm Vroman. ``If you run out, you can't go to the grocery store to buy more.'' Vroman said the move has been widely supported in his county. ``California voters have allowed for people with medical need for pot to have the drug,'' he said. ``That the feds or state legislators think it's politically incorrect is beside the point in Mendocino County.'' Published: Sunday, April 23, 2000 © 1999, Sun Publishing Co.Copyright © 1999 Myrtle Beach Online. Related Articles & Web Sites:WAMMhttp://www.wamm.org/The Compassion Flower Innhttp://compassionflowerinn.com/Pictures from The Compassion Flower Inn in Santa Cruzhttp://homepages.go.com/~marthag1/cfinn.htm CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtmlMedical-Pot Advocates Say Lockyer Has Failedhttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5489.shtmlCannabisNews Articles On Mendocino County:Attorney Gen. Thinks Mendocino Allows Too Much Medical Marijuanahttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2888.shtmlhttp://google.com/search?lc=&num=10&q=cannabisnews+Mendocino+site:cannabisnews.comCannabisNews Articles On Attorney General Bill Lockyer & Prop 215:http://google.com/search?lc=&num=10&q=cannabisnews+lockyer+site:cannabisnews.comhttp://google.com/search?lc=&num=10&q=cannabisnews+prop+215+site:cannabisnews.com 
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