Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jul 2005
Source: Marin Independent Journal (CA)
Copyright: 2005 Marin Independent Journal
Contact:  http://www.marinij.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/673
Author: Paul Liberatore
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)

INSIDE MARIN'S POT CLUB

Fairfax Dispensary Stays The Course, But Worries About Federal Crackdown

THE Rev. Lynnette Shaw, Marin's mother superior of medical marijuana, 
has been doing a lot of praying lately.

Since last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding federal 
authority over marijuana, she's been on edge, uncertain if U.S. Drug 
Enforcement Administration agents will feel inclined to crack down on 
her little operation in Fairfax, Marin's one and only pot club.

It's been more than two years since anyone involved with the club has 
been busted for pot, so trouble now seems unlikely. But you never know.

"I'm so worried about my babies," she said one recent afternoon, 
speaking of the members of her club. "Two weeks ago, we thought the 
feds were coming. No one should have to be that worried and afraid. 
You can't get well when you're in constant fear."

Shaw opened the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana nine years ago, 
when California became the first state in the nation to allow 
marijuana use for medicinal purposes.

Statewide, the measure, Proposition 215, passed with 56 percent of 
the vote. Seventy-three percent of Marin voters favored it. In 
Fairfax, a town with a well-known countercultural history, the figure 
was 89 percent, surpassed only by Bolinas, an even more famous 
outpost of tolerance, with 94 percent.

Since then, Shaw's club has been doing business in a former medical 
office on the second floor of a rustic mall beside the town's baseball field.

As she led me on a tour of the modest premises, redolent with the 
pungent resins of the high-grade herb the club dispenses, she was 
approached by a middle-aged woman who asked if there was anything she 
could do to ease the stressful situation.

"Burn a candle," Shaw suggested.

Moments later, an elderly man came over and thanked her profusely for 
all her efforts on behalf of people who are ill and in pain.

"Bless you," he said.

Meanwhile, the club's staff of three full-time and three part-time 
employees was busily trying to keep up with clients piling up in the 
waiting room. After showing their county-issued identification cards, 
members are given a number - to ensure confidentiality - before 
sitting down and waiting for their turn to make their purchase.

"1476," a staffer announced at one point, then added good naturedly: 
"You're on the hot seat."

Behind a wooden counter in a salesroom about the size of a walk-in 
closet, a white board listed the day's menu. Members, taken one at a 
time, may choose among an array of brands - Rooty Tootie, 
Shiskaberry, Mendo Minis, Super Skunk, Sensi Star, X Haze, B-4 and Train Wreck.

There is also a selection of edibles - brownies, candy, rice crispy 
bars, a potent cookie called a Flying Saucer, even ice cream. For 
those in a hurry, an express service offers a more limited selection.

But, at a top price of $60 for an eighth of an ounce, most people 
prefer to take their time. On this day, 49-year-old Terry Fierer of 
Mill Valley, who was a doctoral candidate in history before becoming 
disabled, sat on a stool at the counter, eyeballing large zip-lock 
bags of neatly-trimmed buds, opening the seals and deeply inhaling 
the rising aroma before making his choice.

"Compared to most of the medical community, which treats you like
you're not a person, they really care about their patients here," he
said. "Having a place like this really reduces stress in my life."

'Pot As A Gift From God'

Between 2001 and 2004, the county's office of vital statistics issued 
more than 1,900 photo ID cards for medical marijuana. To get a card, 
applicants must have a form approved by a doctor for medical 
conditions that include AIDS, chronic pain, anorexia, glaucoma, 
arthritis, migraines and cancer, among other ailments.

Card holders spent $1 million last year at the Fairfax club, which 
gets its marijuana, all of it organic, Shaw notes proudly, from a 
cooperative of about 30 local growers.

"Several members who have growing talent grow an extra pound for us," 
she said. "That way it's all over the place in little patches. We're 
not depending on one place. If something bad happens, like a raid, we 
still have 30 or 40 little gardens with an extra pound."

To guard against abuse, members are limited to buying an ounce a 
week, and are asked to visit no more than once a day. The club, 
operating under a set of 84 conditions worked out with the city of 
Fairfax, serves 700 to 800 people a month.

Half of its members are women, a surprisingly high percentage that 
Shaw attributes to a pair of factors.

"One of the reasons is the breast cancer problem in Marin," she 
explained. "And the other is that we're the safest club. Women feel 
safe coming here. We're the kind of club that you can feel safe to 
bring your grandmother."

Shaw, who is 51 and says that marijuana has been a godsend in 
relieving symptoms from environmental and chemical allergies as well 
as freeing her from bouts of suicidal depression, has been on the 
frontlines of the medical marijuana campaign for more than a decade.

After serving time in jail on a marijuana charge in 1991, she became 
an "acolyte" of pot pioneer Dennis Peron, going to work in his 
seminal San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, which she fondly calls 
"the mother ship."

Eight years ago, she took the title of reverend when she was ordained 
"a marijuana minister" in Hawaii by Religion of Jesus founder Jim Kimmel.

"We believe Jesus created pot as a gift from God," she said. "I know 
I'm on a mission from God."

When she isn't working at the Marin Alliance, she fronts a reggae 
band that recently released a CD with the pot songs "Hemp Required," 
"Wish It Was Hemp" and "Grow Da Plant."

Legal Uncertainty

When the Supreme Court ruled last month that state laws don't protect 
marijuana users from federal authorities, Marin has been as cautious 
as the rest of California in figuring out where to go from here.

Sausalito, faced with an application for a pot club at Gate Five Road 
on its waterfront, extended its moratorium on medical marijuana 
dispensaries until next year, acknowledging the confusion over the 
conflicting laws as well as the potential for abuse by garden-variety 
potheads and dope dealers.

"We have people in tremendous pain who can benefit greatly (from 
marijuana)," Mayor Dennis Scremin said. "At the same time, we are 
aware that the difficulty right now is how it is dispensed and how 
easy it is to get a cannabis card."

Mill Valley did the same, imposing a freeze of its own. In both 
cases, it looks like a wise decision. The guy who wanted to open the 
new clubs, Richard Marino, is already in big trouble with the federal 
government.

Last fall, DEA agents with guns drawn stormed his Capitol 
Compassionate Care center in Roseville, the first pot club in 
conservative Placer County.

At the same time, they raided his home in nearby Newcastle, seizing 
250 plants growing behind barbed wire, 20 pounds of processed 
marijuana and $105,000 in cash. The feds took action against Marino 
after his neighbors turned him in.

The U.S. attorney is now moving to confiscate his home and five-acre 
property under federal drug laws. Marino has since shut down his 
Roseville operation and has apparently abandoned his plans to open 
pot clubs in Southern Marin or anywhere else.

"I'm just living a nice little lifestyle," he said. "I'm not going to 
push anything. You can't push the federal government."

Staying Under The Radar

Just last week, state health officials - not wanting to put patients 
and state employees at risk of federal prosecution - stopped issuing 
ID cards for medical marijuana in a pilot program covering three 
Northern California counties.

Marin was set to join the program in August, but will now continue to 
issue its own cards just as it has in the past, according to Rochelle 
Ereman of the county's vital statistics office.

In San Francisco, supervisors have put the brakes on new pot 
dispensaries, imposing a six-month moratorium. Unlike Marin, though, 
the city is rife with marijuana outlets, including 43 unregulated 
ones. From her mellow operation in Fairfax, Shaw calls San Francisco 
"the wild west."

On this side of the Golden Gate Bridge, however, it's the status quo 
that seems to be prevailing.

"Things will stay pretty much the same," said Barry Borden, Marin's 
chief deputy district attorney. "The feds will do what they will, and 
we will continue to do what's appropriate under California state law."

For the Marin club, the strategy is business as usual, don't rock the 
boat, stay under the radar and hope (pray in Shaw's case) for the best.

"Our legal status is very tenuous, the same as everybody else's," 
said Greg Anton, the lawyer for the Marin Alliance. "But the Marin 
club is one of the longest-running places. And they're incredibly 
together. They're very conservative, very tight with regulations and 
books. They just very much want to help sick people."
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MAP posted-by: Beth