cannabisnews.com: Ukiah Couple's Marijuana Club Survives Four Years 





Ukiah Couple's Marijuana Club Survives Four Years 
Posted by FoM on April 09, 2001 at 09:46:14 PT
By Ucilia Wang, The Press Democrat 
Source: Press Democrat
Four years ago, an opera singer and a pharmacist helped turn a theater just north of Ukiah into a pharmacy and a support center offering a controversial medicine to patients. Marvin and Millie Lehrman, founders of the Ukiah Cannabis Club, celebrated the club's four-year anniversary last week.The Lehrmans' Forks Theater was home to the 530-member club until November, when the club moved to its current site on North State Street.
With the support of local law enforcement and politicians, the club has kept a low-profile, distributing marijuana to card-carrying patients. The club also offers reading materials and marijuana cultivation classes.Marvin Lehrman, a former opera singer with a bachelor's degree in music and two doctorates in philosophy, said although he and his wife are not medical marijuana users themselves, they are dedicated to making sure the sick and terminally ill have a place to go for their medication.The Lehrmans moved from San Francisco to Mendocino County in 1983, and began running the Forks Theater just north of Ukiah, holding live stage performances and offering re-runs of classic Hollywood movies.In 1997, they were asked to help start the club by their friend Cherrie Lee Smith-Lovett. Smith-Lovett, a Ukiah native and an early activist in the medical marijuana movement who suffered from lupus, was driving to San Francisco to buy marijuana at the time. She died Feb. 23 of a stroke.With their club very much in the news lately, the Lehrmans said they look forward to celebrating an end to the political and legal wrangling over the use of marijuana to treat and relieve the symptoms of illness."I'd like to see an end to the drug war," said Marvin Lehrman, 66, director of the club. "I think we are in the Dark Ages when it comes to marijuana."Fifty-six percent of California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996 to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor's recommendation.But a lawsuit and a court injunction threaten to shut medical marijuana clubs.The Ukiah club is one of six Northern California clubs targeted by the federal government in a civil lawsuit. Federal officials say marijuana is an illegal drug with no medicinal value, and using it for any reason is a violation of federal law.The National Institutes of Health and the University of California are sponsoring research projects to test the medical value of marijuana.Millie Lehrman, 52, who has a doctorate in pharmacy from UC San Francisco, said research already has shown marijuana has great medicinal value, such as stimulating appetite to fight unhealthy weight loss, relieving the side effects of cancer treatment and easing the pain of glaucoma, an eye disease that could lead to vision loss."Being a pharmacist, I view it as any medicine that people can use if they need it," said Lehrman, who consults with medical marijuana patients at the club. She also works at Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits."I have sympathy for the patients, and I see results," Marvin Lehrman said. "The government has been perpetrating a hoax that ruined people's lives."After a federal judge barred the six clubs from dispensing marijuana in 1998, three of them closed. But the Ukiah and Marin clubs have remained open while the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club appealed the judge's decision.The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case last month, and it is expected to make a ruling by June. But during oral arguments, the court's conservative justices said they saw no legal basis for giving the drug to people who are seriously ill.David Nelson, attorney for the Ukiah club, said if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the government, then federal authorities are empowered to shut any medical marijuana club."But the problem is, clubs will just keep popping up," Nelson said. "There is a question of how much energy they (federal authorities) will put into" closing down clubs.Note: Lehrmans hope high court ruling will end political, legal battles over medicinal pot. Source: Santa Rosa Press Democrat (CA)Author: Ucilia Wang, The Press Democrat Published: April 9, 2001Copyright: 2001 The Press DemocratContact: letters pressdemo.com Website: http://www.pressdemo.com/Related Article:Ukiah Pot Club Awaits Decision http://cannabisnews.com/news/6/thread6901.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by joe king on June 21, 2001 at 16:06:23 PT:
keep it up
Hey guy just wanted to say keep it up don't give the fight as bob marley would say hopfully will see you soon or at reggae on the club member 489 peace pot microdot
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