LAW AND DISORDER

Californians voted to make medical marijuana legal in 1996. But
political paralysis over enforcement has some communities taking
matters into their own hands.

Before she died of cancer last Christmas Eve, Nemo Vier's mother had
shrunk to 65 pounds.

Each week, Vier would scoop his mom's frail body into his arms and
drive her to Mendocino County's cannabis club. There, she'd smoke
marijuana to relieve her chronic pain and nausea.

In other California counties, Lucia Yvonne Vier, a 48-year-old
cosmetologist who died holding her Bible and rosary beads, could have
gone to jail for smoking marijuana to ease her pain.

But not in Mendocino County. Not in the town of Arcata in Humboldt
County. And not in San Francisco, where Mayor Willie Brown is due to
launch a program that will allow patients like Vier to use marijuana
without fear of arrest.

All three places are scrappy pockets of resistance in a country where
medical marijuana use is a federal crime and in a state that refuses
to implement Proposition 215, the medical marijuana law passed by 56
percent of the voters in 1996.

Bolstered by the trickle-up will of the people and a handful of
maverick officials, these communities are serving as role models in a
budding counterinsurgency against the federal government's war on
medical marijuana.

"Hell, if Janet Reno herself wants to come in here and arrest me for
giving the people what they already voted for, I say fine,'' said
Mendocino Sheriff Tony Craver, who worked with District Attorney Norm
Vroman last year to launch the state's first countywide medical
marijuana program.

"If you're sick, you should not have to worry about arrest or being
hassled by the cops or having your property seized just for doing
something that is legally protected,'' said Craver, who spent 28 of
his 60 years as a street cop.

But the concept of relieving simple human suffering hasn't penetrated
the ivory towers above the Beltway. There, policy-setters continue to
assault medical marijuana under the leadership of a president who
claims he didn't inhale -- and neither should any one else. His "drug
czar,'' Gen. Barry McCaffrey, recently called medical marijuana "a
crock.'' Senators Dianne Feinstein and Orrin Hatch are pushing for a
law that would make it a crime to discuss on the Internet how to
distribute or produce drugs. That means swapping tips on growing
medical marijuana would be just as illegal as a Web site that details
how to whip up a vat of crank.

In Ukiah two years ago, federal agents masquerading as ill patients
with prescriptions for medical marijuana conned their way into the
Ukiah Cannabis Club and shut it down, along with half a dozen other
California clubs. This left seriously ill patients no choice but to
pay high street prices for their medicine -- if they could find it.

It's these types of government actions and attitudes that are creating
a grass-roots backlash.

"It's reefer madness turned around -- the government doing all these
crazy things to the people,'' said Marvin Lehrman, who runs the Ukiah
Cannabis Club with his wife Millie, a clinical pharmacist. The
Lehrmans risk arrest for continuing to keep the club doors open in
defiance of the federal injunction.

"I am disgusted by our government and these politicians. What if it
was their mother who was dying? What if their child was sick?'' said
Vier, 28, a radio announcer whose mother died of cancer. Vier is
committed to spreading his mother's gospel that marijuana should be
available to the sick.

Vier has a tattoo of his late mother stenciled on into his back, right
next to a smiling Jesus Christ adorned with wings and the words, "In
Loving Memory.'' It's her 1967 Analy High School graduation portrait,
complete with a Ronette-type beehive hairdo.

"I love it how these people in Mendocino don't back down. That's why
my mother felt so welcome here,'' he said of the Ukiah Cannabis Club.

Medical marijuana proponents like Vier and the Lehrmans are battling
on more than one front. In addition to active attempts by the federal
government to clamp down on medical marijuana, they are up against
political infighting that has paralyzed attempts to make Proposition
215 a reality in the state.

State Sen. John Vasconcellos' move to develop a state identification
program bogged and died in the last legislative session. It may be
revived this session, but in the meantime, politicians in Sacramento
are sitting on their hands, afraid to enforce the law.

"Everyone knows what the initiative sought to accomplish -- sick
people who have a recommendation form from a physician should be given
their medicine,'' said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for state Attorney
General Bill Lockyer. "Now from there it gets really, really murky.
How do you define a caregiver? What is the appropriate quantity? What
about distribution? How do you tell the good guys from the bad guys?''
he said. "The initiative didn't answer any of those questions as it
was written, which makes it difficult to enforce the law.''

But as lawmakers struggle with the devils in the details, people in
less progressive parts of the state are being persecuted for using
medical marijuana. In Sonoma, Placer, Marin and Orange counties,
medical marijuana patients are being arrested. Some have been
re-arrested after being acquitted. In Shasta County, Sheriff Jim Pope
may face contempt-of-court charges for turning over medical marijuana
to federal agents, even though he was ordered by a judge to return it
to a patient.

Despite both federal and state restrictions, counties like Mendocino
continue to offer a haven for patients like Chris Sorenson, a
39-year-old former firefighter with glaucoma who uses marijuana to
relieve the pressure building behind his eyes. "If it wasn't for the
marijuana I'd be blind,'' Sorenson said. "Doctors told me 10 years ago
I'd be blind in five years. I just want to hold on to my sight as long
as possible so I can see my newborn baby grow up.''

Mendocino also makes it safe for Jamie Ryan, 23, who has a rare
neurological disease called cerebellar ataxia. Because she cannot use
her hands, which are curled in rippling fits of muscle spasms, Ryan
leans forward from her wheelchair and smokes marijuana from a
battery-operated pipe. Marijuana eases her spasticity and stimulates
her appetite, said her mother, Sharon Short, who buys marijuana in
Ukiah to make Jamie rice crispy treats at home. "I can't believe
handguns are legal, but I am made to feel like a criminal for helping
my daughter,'' said Short.

For Laurie Sylstra, 48, of Ukiah, Mendocino's program offers blessed
respite from the 17 pills she used to take daily after surgery for a
brain aneurysm left her partially paralyzed.

After her surgery and a three-month hospital stay, Sylstra was left
with two metal clips in her brain, slurred speech, wobbly mobility and
searing headaches. For years she gulped handfuls of pills -- legally
prescribed narcotics such as Vicodin and Demerol. She took Valium for
anxiety; Phenobarbital to prevent seizures; Flexeril, a muscle
relaxer; Decadron, to decrease intercranial pressure; and so on. Her
prescriptions cost $712 a month.

As a card-carrying member the Mendocino program, marijuana costs her
half as much. The herb has stopped her headaches, prevents her spasms
and has helped wean her off of the prescribed narcotics. Marijuana is
the now the only medicine she uses.

Those who suffer physical ailments aren't the only ones baffled by
efforts to outlaw medical marijuana. "If I gave you a hundred
Percocets or Valium a week, no one would bat an eye,'' said Dr. Marvin
Trotter, Mendocino County's public health officer. "But if you have
cancer and you want to smoke a joint to ease your nausea, it's
considered a bad thing. As a physician, I just don't get it.''

Other local officials don't get it either. In the Humboldt County town
of Arcata, Police Chief Mel Brown personally screens each medical
marijuana patient to make sure their doctor's prescription is
legitimate. Once cleared, Brown snaps the patient's picture with a
digital camera and hands them a laminated ID card, which protects them
from arrest by his officers.

"It was 1997, a year after the voters passed Proposition 215, and we
realized we better quit bitching about how the state wasn't doing
anything to implement the law,'' Brown said. "Somebody had to do
something, so we stepped up the plate.''

Brown said that at first he "took a lot of heat'' from his fellow
officers. "My peers said, 'Good God, Mel's really slipped a cog.' ''

But the Arcata program has won over its toughest critics, especially
since it lowered the city's police overtime bill.

Other counties are now following Mendocino County's lead. Ventura
County officials are meeting with Mendocino's district attorney and
sheriff to get the low-down on their program, and Tehama County is
also considering a medical marijuana plan. In San Francisco, Mayor
Willie Brown last month signed into law a medical program largely
based on those in Mendocino county and Arcata. The San Francisco
program was spearheaded by Supervisor Mark Leno in response to
lobbying from local medical marijuana advocates, but he had personal
reasons for supporting it as well. Doug Jackson, Leno's partner of 10
years, died of AIDS. "There were times in his battle with AIDS where
marijuana would have been very helpful,'' Leno said.

Those who paved the way for medical marijuana program report smooth
sailing, thanks to cooperation from patients, doctors and law
enforcement officials.

Now that Arcata police know who is legal and who isn't, Brown said,
they don't waste time and county money going to court to testify
against medical marijuana patients.

"It's made our lives easier. Now there's not a person in this town who
doesn't know the rules,'' Brown said. "If any fool wants to abuse the
program, we'll arrest them. It's as simple as that.''

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HOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAMS WORK

Mendocino County

Free countywide identification program started last year. So far, 225
residents have received ID cards.

The way it works:

- -- Patients go to the county's public health department with a written
or verbal prescription for medical marijuana from a local physician.

- -- The public health officer verifies the legitimacy of the
prescription by contacting the physician. Information on the patient's
medical condition and the name of the physician is then destroyed
before the patient's and a designated caregiver's name is forwarded to
the county sheriff's office.

- -- The patient and caregiver are issued a laminated photo
identification with name, photo, date of birth, a serial number,
expiration date (usually good for one year) and signature.

- -- Patients or caregivers are allowed up to six flowering marijuana
plants or 12 immature plants -- enough to produce up to two pounds of
dried marijuana.

- -- Patients, caregivers and physicians must be residents of Mendocino
County. (Exceptions are made for cancer, AIDs and lupus patients who
may be treated by out-of-county medical experts.)

Arcata

Free citywide identification program started in 1997. City doesn't
keep track of the number of cards issued.

The way it works:

- -- Patients go to the police chief's office with a written or verbal
prescription for medical marijuana from a California physician.

- -- The police chief verifies the legitimacy of the prescription by
contacting the physician. No information on the patient, the patient's
caregiver or the physician is kept on file.

- -- The patient is issued a photo identification with name, photo, an
expiration date based on the physician's recommendation, a serial
number and signature. Caregivers do not get a card. Patients and
caregivers keep track of their own written agreement confirming name
of caregiver.

- -- Patients and/or caregivers are allowed up to eight ounces of dried
marijuana or 10 flowering plants.

- -- Patient must be an Arcata resident. Recommending physicians can be
from anywhere, as long as they are licensed doctors in good standing.

San Francisco

Countywide identification program is due to launch within next several
months. Details are currently being hammered out by the county health
department. The county is likely to charge a per-card fee of $20 to
$25.

The way it is expected to work:

- -- Patients and the patient's primary caregiver will go to the public
health department with a written or verbal prescription for medical
marijuana from a local physician.

- -- The public health officer will verify the legitimacy of the
prescription by contacting the physician. Information on the patient's
medical condition and the name of the physician will then be destroyed
before the patient's and caregivers' serial numbers are forwarded to
the district attorney.

- -- The patient and up to four or five designated caregivers will be
issued photo identification cards with just a serial number. Cards
will not contain patients' or caregivers' names. Cards will expire
after two years.

- -- There will be no limit on the amount of marijuana, either dried or
flowering, allowed for patients or their caregivers. Those rules will
be made and enforced by the district attorney.

- -- Patients, caregivers and physicians must be residents of San
Francisco County.

Source - Dr. Hermina Palacio, special health adviser for the San Francisco
County and City Department of Public Health; Mendocino County Sheriff Tony
Craver, District Attorney Norm Vroman and public health officer Dr. Marvin
Trotter; Arcata Police Chief Mel Brown.

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