Pubdate: Sun, 17 Oct 2010
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2010 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Authors: John Woolfolk and Sean Webby
Cited: Proposition 19 http://yeson19.com/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?272 (Proposition 19)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA FOR THE MASSES

In the year since U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced federal 
drug agents would stop targeting medicinal marijuana use where state 
law sanctioned it, Santa Clara County -- like other parts of 
California -- has become the Wild West.

But suddenly, the sheriff has ridden into town.

California, the first of 14 states that now allow medical marijuana, 
has one of the loosest laws of its kind. It doesn't limit conditions 
that qualify patients, nor does it require them to register with the 
state. It gives doctors wide latitude in approving the drug's use. 
And it doesn't specify how marijuana should be distributed to users.

Even though state voters next month will decide whether pot should be 
legalized for recreational use, activists like Denis Peron -- 
co-author of the 1996 ballot measure that sanctioned medical 
marijuana -- freely acknowledge the secret that's sparked an 
explosion of distributors and left officials scrambling statewide:

"Pretty much," Peron said, "marijuana is legal already."

But while that may be true for anyone who takes the trouble to get a 
doctor's recommendation, the situation is not as clear for medical 
pot providers. In the past three weeks, Santa Clara County law 
enforcement has sprung into action, shutting down two dispensaries 
and a pot-delivery service. And while at first they raided operators 
who didn't follow basic guidelines demanding a doctor's 
recommendation, their latest target was one of the county's largest 
and appeared to comply with all the rules.

The reason? Authorities believed the operators had crossed the line 
from nonprofit collective to cash cow.

"These guys are making truckloads of money," said Bob Cooke, the 
South Bay's special agent in charge of the state Bureau of Narcotics 
Enforcement. He said many of the patrons at the dispensaries looked 
"like the healthiest people in the world."

Even before the raids, San Jose code enforcement efforts to shut down 
the most troublesome pot clubs prompted lawsuit threats from club 
operators who say officials are misinterpreting-- or willfully 
ignoring -- state law. Peron insists that under Proposition 215, "All 
use of marijuana is medicine."

Cooke calls the tangle of regulations and court cases that dictate 
medicinal marijuana use in California "a mess."

"It's a hard time for everybody trying to figure out what is legal 
and what is illegal," he said. "These days, everybody has a marijuana 
card, they treat it like it's a joke. Unfortunately, it is a joke. If 
the law was written easier, it would be easier for us to enforce."

Nearly Anything Goes

For years after the passage of Proposition 215, U.S. officials 
continued to enforce overriding federal law, under which pot remains 
illegal. Even in tolerant towns like Santa Cruz that welcomed medical 
marijuana, those who openly invoked the state's law faced ruinous 
legal battles.

But Holder's announcement last fall emboldened sellers and users to 
test the limits of what California's law might allow -- which appears 
to be just about anything.

"California may be the loosest," said Keith Humphreys, a psychiatry 
professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and former 
White House adviser on drug control policy. "If it's not de facto 
legalization, then it's getting pretty close."

The ease of obtaining pot from a storefront has attracted a growing 
number of people like Hillary Breslove, an admitted "recreational 
user" who calls herself a "high-functioning stoner."

With a doctor's nod, the 45-year-old Mountain View caterer smokes pot 
for everyday bothers like stress that others might ease with an 
aspirin. "I was tired of buying it out of the back of someone's 
pocket," she said.

In San Jose, Holder's move inspired Dave Hodges last year to open the 
San Jose Cannabis Buyers Collective -- among the first of what are 
now dozens of dispensaries. After stints as a tech-support specialist 
at Santa Clara High School and a Silicon Valley PR firm, he says he 
became a medical cannabis patient to manage job stress. His pot 
collective now has more than 3,600 patients.

Medical pot shops remain technically illegal in San Jose, where 
zoning codes don't explicitly permit them. The city is considering 
zoning to allow a limited number and is asking voters to approve 
Measure U on the Nov. 2 ballot, which would authorize a tax up to 10 
percent on marijuana businesses, legal or illegal.

Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Cruz already limit dispensaries. 
Some Santa Clara County cities have tried to ban them. While San Jose 
has dawdled on developing rules, the outlets have flourished. The 
city, which a little more than a year ago had not a single dispensary 
operating in the open, now has at least 60 that have paid city 
business taxes. Online directories suggest at least a dozen others 
are in operation.

Clinics advertise marijuana approvals for insomnia, premenstrual 
syndrome, even substance abuse. With a valid state ID and about $50, 
a physician's approval can be had with no appointment, "20 minutes in 
and out." Users can then take the approval straight to a dispensary.

San Jose officials say they're waiting to complete work on medical 
marijuana zoning and regulations until they see what happens with 
statewide Proposition 19 on the November ballot.

Proposition 19 would legalize adult recreational pot smoking without 
the pretense of medical need, but California is lurching that way 
already. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes the initiative, but he 
just signed a law reducing possession of small amounts without a 
doctor's recommendation to a mere citation like a traffic ticket -- 
hoping to counter Proposition 19 backers who argue the state wastes 
money and time prosecuting low-level drug crimes.

Holder announced last week that the federal government will not look 
the other way if the state legalizes recreational pot.

How We Got Here

Even if Proposition 19 loses, it's not likely to change the fact that 
the state's current regulations already allow almost anyone to get 
marijuana. Among the reasons:

. California law doesn't specify what qualifies a patient for 
marijuana. Proposition 215 lists ailments such as anorexia and AIDS 
but allows it for "any other illness for which marijuana provides relief."

Maine's law, by contrast, allows medical pot only for eight specific 
ailments, including cancer and AIDS, or "intractable pain." And users 
are required to register with the state, unlike here.

In California, fewer than 13,000 marijuana patient ID cards were 
issued in the past year. Yet Lauren Vasquez, a lawyer and pot 
activist, says there are about 25,000 such patients just in the San Jose area.

. California law says "no physician in this state shall be punished 
"... for having recommended marijuana to a patient for medical 
purposes." While the Medical Board of California may suspend or 
revoke a doctor's license for marijuana recommendations that violate 
professional standards, only a dozen physicians have been disciplined 
since the passage of Proposition 215. And most of them still practice 
and give out marijuana recommendations, such as Dr. Hanya Barth of 
San Francisco.

Barth, 65, said she looks to ensure marijuana use isn't masking a 
serious condition. "You have to do that as a physician, just as you 
would if you were giving Vicodin."

. California courts have yet to rule on whether the law even allows 
the marijuana dispensaries that sell pot to anyone with a doctor's 
note. More than 150 communities around the state have banned 
dispensaries. But an appeals court weighing a challenge to such laws 
in Anaheim sent it back to a lower court this year without answering 
the key legal question.

Maine's law permits only eight state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

With California's legal landscape unsettled, all manner of marijuana 
entrepreneurs are hanging shingles. San Jose's pot clubs range from 
the spalike Harborside Health Center -- nestled in a tree-lined 
corporate park and guarded by professional security -- to the stoner 
stylings of Buddy's Cannabis, which sits next to a car stereo joint 
on busy Stevens Creek Boulevard and is decorated with homemade, Bob 
Marley-inspired art.

There's big money at stake. The state Board of Equalization estimates 
receipts of up to $105 million in sales taxes last year from medical 
marijuana sales. Total statewide sales are estimated to be as high as 
$1.3 billion.

Steve DeAngelo, Harborside's executive director, laments that the 
free-for-all attracts shady competitors who may finally be triggering 
a backlash here from residents, cops and city officials.

Mayor Chuck Reed said he's well aware many medical marijuana users 
aren't what most people would consider "medically needy." But, he 
said, the city is "trying to have some controls" amid shifting 
federal and state edicts.

In the face of all the legal loopholes, police in recent weeks have 
started going after the clubs on grounds that offer more clarity -- 
such as violating the nonprofit requirement or delivering pot like 
Chinese takeout, which police and prosecutors say is only legal in 
certain circumstances.

Said Reed: "All the pot clubs, collectives, whatever they're called, 
have to follow the law. That's one of the principles for how we 
manage this chaos." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake