Pubdate: Wed, 27 Aug 2008
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: B - 1
Column: Matier & Ross
Copyright: 2008 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Authors: Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
Note: Below is the lead section of a longer column.
Alert: Brown's Rules On Medical Marijuana http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0383.html
Referenced: The guidelines http://drugsense.org/url/kKMJR2lu
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Proposition+215
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Jerry+Brown

JERRY BROWN GETS TOUGH ON MEDICAL POT CLUBS

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has ordered a crackdown on 
medical pot clubs that are selling the drug for big profits.

The move puts the state a bit more in line with the feds in dealing 
with the explosion of questionable marijuana dispensaries since the 
passage of Proposition 215 more than a decade ago.

The first target was Today's Health Care club in Northridge (Los 
Angeles County), which agents from the state Bureau of Narcotic 
Enforcement raided over the weekend. The club owner and an alleged 
middleman were booked on drug-dealing charges.

Brown said Tuesday he would "not be surprised" to see similar raids 
here in the Bay Area.

"The voters wanted medical marijuana dispensaries to be used for 
seriously ill patients and their caregivers - not as million-dollar 
businesses," Brown said.

In recent years, pot club raids have been conducted mainly by federal 
authorities who don't recognize Prop. 215, the initiative California 
voters passed in 1996 to let patients use cannabis to treat what 
ailed them. Although medical marijuana is still illegal under federal 
law, the feds say many of their targets were actually sham outfits 
that were dealing marijuana for, shall we say, nonmedicinal uses.

This week, Brown issued an 11-page directive laying out guidelines 
that medical marijuana cooperatives must follow to comply with Prop. 215.

Among them: Sell only to legitimate patients. Operate as nonprofits. 
Buy pot only from fellow cooperative members at prices that cover 
cost, as opposed to professional growers out for big bucks.

"We are not out to harass legitimate clubs," Brown said. "The targets 
are those clubs that are part of a larger criminal operation where 
medical marijuana winds up being sold on the street and contributing 
to crime and violence."

Some medical marijuana dispensers, concerned that thuggish dope 
dealers are giving their business a bad name, welcomed Brown's 
guidelines - and the state crackdown.

"It's something many activists have been looking for since the 
medical marijuana law passed," said Kevin Reed of the Green Cross 
marijuana collective in San Francisco.

He said his outfit had nothing to fear. "We are a nonprofit," Reed 
said. "We only sell to patients. We only get our pot in small 
quantities from patients who grow it and sell it on consignment.

"We've been on the front page of every major newspaper in the nation 
and have never been bothered by the feds, because we are an open 
book," Reed said.

As for how many of San Francisco's 26 pot clubs might find themselves 
in hot water, Reed said: "I expect about 10 will not be with us within a year."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake