4 FROM POT CLINIC TO FACE CHARGES AGAIN A San Diego Superior Court judge overruled one of his colleagues yesterday and ordered four people from a Hillcrest medicinal marijuana clinic that was shut down by police earlier this year to again face drug charges. In doing so, Judge Howard Shore criticized another judge who had dismissed charges nearly two months ago against the owners and employees of the California Alternative Medicinal Center on Fourth Avenue. Shore said Judge William Mudd committed an "abuse of discretion" in September when Mudd dismissed marijuana sale and possession-for-sale charges against Carolyn Konow and her son Steven Rohr, co-owners of the clinic, and Amy Toosley and Daniel O'Neil, who worked there. The case further clouds the issues surrounding Proposition 215, in which state voters in 1996 legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Although it is not against the law for a doctor to recommend marijuana or for a patient to smoke it, it is still against the law to purchase pot or sell it. On Sept. 5, Mudd ruled that the defendants had been put in an "untenable position" by the ambiguity and confusion surrounding Prop. 215. He said Konow "had taken all steps necessary to comply with the statute," but that the law was so "botched up" that what is legal in other parts of the state is illegal here. Shore disagreed. He said although Konow had discussed her plans to operate the clinic with police and with the City Attorney's Office, she had not gone directly to the District Attorney's Office, which Shore said is the only agency that matters because only it charges felonies. Now, the issue shifts back to Mudd. The defendants were ordered to appear before him again on Nov. 7. Konow and the other three could face six years in prison if convicted, said Deputy District Attorney Julie Korsmeyer. The purchases were made by a former volunteer at the clinic who was the caretaker for a man suffering from AIDS. The former volunteer agreed to cooperate with police after detectives unsuccessfully used an undercover sheriff's deputy. The clinic had been operating for more than two years when it was shut down and had about 1,000 clients, Konow said.
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