Pubdate: Wed, 15 Jun 2005
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2005 Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.heraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/398
Author: Dean E. Murphy, New York Times

CALIFORNIA REINS IN CLINICS USING MARIJUANA FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES

SAN FRANCISCO, June 14 - The best sellers at the Green Cross medical
marijuana dispensary here are whipped up in the kitchen of Kevin Reed,
the founder and president.

Fresh-baked marijuana cakes. Marijuana cookies with Ghirardelli
chocolate chips. Marijuana peanut butter, lollipops, peanut brittle
and espresso truffles. Each comes packaged with a warning: "Please
keep out of the reach of children and pets."

Mr. Reed, 31, a former mobile home salesman from Alabama who moved
here after being arrested twice for marijuana possession, said the
warning was added to the sweets when a customer reported that "their
grandma ate one of them."

The Incredible Edibles, as the confections are called, account for 40
percent of sales at the Green Cross, a thriving nonprofit organization
in a neighborhood of hip bars, trendy restaurants and Victorian row
houses. The 150 or so customers it serves each day can pay with Visa
or MasterCard and need only a doctor's recommendation to gain entry.

It has been nine years since voters in California passed the first
state law allowing sick people to use marijuana for medical purposes.
The measure passed in San Francisco with 78 percent of the vote, the
largest percentage in the state. But the city, where dozens of
dispensaries like the Green Cross, known as pot clubs, have sprouted,
is now among many struggling with the excesses of the law's success.

Even before the United States Supreme Court last week upheld federal
authority over marijuana, even in states where its use for medical
purposes is legal, city officials, dispensary owners and medical
marijuana advocates in San Francisco had begun questioning how much of
the drug was enough.

Last month, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors imposed a six-month
moratorium on new dispensaries after health officials counted at least
43 unregulated facilities, including one in a building where formerly
homeless people were receiving drug and alcohol abuse counseling. Even
with the moratorium, there have been reports of new clubs setting up
shop.

"The absence of laws has allowed adverse opportunities to emerge,"
said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who proposed the moratorium.

Capt. Rick Bruce of the San Francisco police said more marijuana was
on the streets than at any other time in his 30 years with the
department. Captain Bruce said that while there were many sick people
who legitimately turned to the drug for treatment, countless dealers
had used the dispensaries as a cover for illegal sales.

"It's a huge scam," said Captain Bruce, who heads the city's Bayview
station, which covers some of the highest-crime neighborhoods. "We see
guys coming out of these places, and the only description I can come
up with is that it looks like a Cheech and Chong movie. They are what
you would call your traditional potheads; whether they have a medical
condition beyond that is subject to debate."

Though public opinion polls show that Californians continue to support
the medical use of marijuana, the problems associated with
distributing the drug have troubled many towns and
neighborhoods.

In the past year at least five California cities have banned
dispensaries because of fears that they would lead to crime and abuse.
In addition, 47 cities and counties have imposed moratoriums on new
dispensaries, according to a survey by Americans for Safe Access, a
marijuana advocacy group in Oakland.

"It seemed like a bit of a panic was spreading," said Hilary McQuie, a
spokeswoman for the group.

The State Legislature created guidelines in 2003 for carrying out the
medical marijuana law, but local officials across the state still
struggle with how to control the dispensaries. So far, only 17 cities
and counties have passed ordinances regulating them, according to
Americans for Safe Access.

The task was made even more complicated last week with the ruling by
the Supreme Court, which affected California and the 10 other states
that allow some uses of medical marijuana. (The other states are
Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, Oregon,
Vermont and Washington.)

Advocacy groups reported that a handful of small dispensaries closed
last week, and state health officials said they were moving more
cautiously on a plan to begin a statewide medical marijuana ID card
program. An estimated 100,000 people in California use the drug for
medicinal purposes, far more than in any other state, according to the
Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports medical uses of marijuana.

"Right now we are analyzing the federal law," said Norma Arceo, a
spokeswoman for the California Department of Health Services. "We
don't know how much of that affects the state law."

Getting inside the dispensaries, many patients say, is not difficult.
Under the state law, would-be marijuana users seeking relief from a
range of ailments, from chronic pain or nausea to cancer or AIDS-
related symptoms, must receive a doctor's recommendation, which is
roughly the equivalent of a prescription for federally approved
medicines. If their usual doctors are reluctant to make a referral,
patients can turn to "compassionate physicians" who advertise their
services in newspapers and on the Web.

One of those physicians, Dr. R. Stephen Ellis, whose practice is
explained on www.potdoc.com, promises to refund examination fees if an
appointment does not result in a recommendation. MediCann, a chain of
10 clinics in the state run by a Santa Cruz doctor, Jean Talleyrand,
processes about 700 patients a week, with about three-quarters of them
getting a recommendation, said a spokesman, Nicholas Jarrett.

"Our concern is always about the patients," Mr. Jarrett said. "We want
them to have access to whatever medicine they need."

Dr. Joshua Bamberger, the medical director for housing and urban
health at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said the
department issued about 4,000 medical marijuana ID cards a year.
Patients pay a $25 fee, provide the doctor's recommendation and agree
to have their photograph taken. The card is offered to make buying
medical marijuana more convenient and is accepted at dispensaries in
San Francisco and five nearby counties.

But Dr. Bamberger said the county had no ability under the law to
control how much marijuana patients buy with the cards. To prevent
federal authorities from using county records to prosecute
cardholders, the county does not keep records of who has received a
card or the name of the doctor who provided the recommendation, but it
does number each card for tracking purposes.

When some drug dealers are arrested, even with large quantities of
marijuana, Captain Bruce said, many of them produce a medical
marijuana card and insist they have done nothing wrong.

"It might as well be the summer of love out here," Captain Bruce
said.

The complaints in San Francisco worsened last year when Oakland,
across the San Francisco Bay, passed an ordinance limiting the number
of dispensaries, leading to a migration of clubs here. In March, Mayor
Gavin Newsom called for new controls on the clubs, and Supervisor
Mirkarimi held public hearings on the problems.

Mr. Mirkarimi said regulation was the only way to save the
dispensaries from a public backlash.

"We will probably see a thinning out and recalibration of many clubs,"
he said. "But at least it will be a legitimizing process of the club
infrastructure, so these clubs don't have to operate in a subterranean
atmosphere."

Ms. McQuie of Americans for Safe Access said advocacy groups had
reached the same conclusion and had been working with city and county
officials across California to devise rules for the clubs. Regulation
would not only defuse opposition, she said, but also demonstrate to
the federal government that California lawmakers stand behind the
state's medical marijuana law.

"We want licenses, we want zoning, we want permits," Ms. McQuie said.
"Since states are meant to be the social laboratories, we want to show
how well medical marijuana can work."

Many operators of the dispensaries, which under state law must be not-
for-profit establishments run by patients, have joined the call for
greater oversight. Some have gone to great lengths to make their clubs
appear more like a "Walgreens pharmacy than a drug house in the middle
of Ghettoville," said Mr. Reed of the Green Cross.

Mr. Reed collects sales tax on purchases - $10,000 last month -
provides health and other benefits to his 10 employees and has 16
security cameras at the dispensary. A bouncer is posted at the door,
and an employee outside keeps the sidewalk free of loiterers.

"I am in this to help people and show people it can be done right,"
Mr. Reed said, "not to go to prison."

Mr. Reed sells his confections for $5 each, but if patients prefer to
bake their own, or smoke the marijuana instead, they can choose from
an assortment of dried marijuana buds. Prices for the 50 or so strains
in stock are uniform: $300 an ounce.

The so-called budtenders who work behind large glass display cases
provide assistance in selecting the best strain. All of them are
medical marijuana users, and they typically are medicated while working.

"We have a great time here," said Mr. Reed, preparing marijuana buds
to treat a back injury he sustained in a car accident 13 years ago.
"And we make people smile." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake