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.