POT INITIATIVE CREATES CONFUSION

SANTA MONICA - Along a quiet street lies a nondescript condominium
where nothing, it seems, is out of the ordinary.

But a narrow walkway running around the side of the building leads to
the door of Steve Corchado, 51, who for nearly two years has sold
thousands of dollars of marijuana for a profit from his home.

Corchado maintains that his company, Comfort Care Group Inc., is not
operating outside the bounds of the law. It is, he says, a legitimate
business that sells marijuana only to seriously ill patients under the
provisions of the Compassionate Use Act, which California voters
approved as Proposition 215 in 1996.

State officials, however, question the legality of distribution
facilities such as Comfort Care Group and the nonprofit Cannabis
Resource Center in West Hollywood.

"There's no express provision in 215 for their existence to begin with
unless they can somehow convince local authorities that they are
designated primary caregivers," said David DeAlba, special assistant
to Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer.

"What they're doing is an interpretation of 215 that has not been
addressed by the courts."

The differences in how state officials and medical marijuana providers
interpret the law is reflected in the way cities like Santa Monica and
West Hollywood enforce it.

The law permits "seriously ill Californians" to obtain and use
marijuan a for medical purposes when a physician has determined that a
patient's health would benefit from the use to treat ailments such as
AIDS, cancer or glaucoma. The law has no provision for how marijuana
is disseminated to qualified patients, except to encourage the federal
and state governments to implement a distribution plan.

While practices differ around the state, patients join the Cannabis
Resource Center, for example, by furnishing a letter of authorization
from their doctors.

The center, which claims to have the strictest rules in the state,
will then contact the doctor to make sure he or she has issued the
letter and knows the patient. Finally, the center will check the
doctor's credentials with the state medical board before deciding
whether to grant membership to the applicant.

Patients and their primary caregiver are not subject to criminal
prosecution or sanction under the Compassionate Use Act.

Still, state authorities continue to crack down on Californians who
cultivate marijuana for medicinal purposes. At the federal level, the
U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency order in August preventing the
Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative from distributing marijuana.

Now, as the justices decide whether to hear arguments in that case--a
hearing that could dramatically alter how cannabis centers across the
nation operate--the disparities between Comfort Care Group and
Cannabis Resource Center have raised some key questions in the battle
over medical marijuana, including whether centers should operate on a
nonprofit or for-profit basis; whether to work closely with local
authorities; and the legality of providing patients with medicinal
marijuana that may have been purchased on the black market.

KEEPING A LOW PROFILE

Corchado, a Vietnam veteran who uses marijuana because of the cancer
he contracted from exposure to asbestos, fell into an epileptic,
diabetic coma last month. With his fate uncertain, loved ones gathered
close by and waited while he struggled for life.

Ten days later, Corchado awoke, and he has since returned to Comfort
Care Group, the company in which he has invested his money and his
passion.

In grand fashion, Corchado and medical marijuana activist Richard
Eastman told local officials in 1999 about what was initially called
215 Santa Monica Patients Medical Marijuana Society outside an
inaugural celebration for Gov. Gray Davis. But after announcing
Comfort Care Group's opening with a splash, Corchado now prefers to
lie low and declined to be photographed.

The Santa Monica Police Department has not received any complaints
about the center and knows little about its operations, said Lt. Gary
Gallinot, a department spokesman.

"As long as there's no criminal activity, then we don't have a
position one way or the other," he said of the legality of the center.

But the Santa Monica city attorney's office has a different
opinion.

"In terms of the issue if there could be such an establishment . . .
we have interpreted our local zoning code to prohibit such
activities," said Barry Rosenbaum, the city's senior land-use
attorney. "There are other cities that have allowed it and have had
significant problems with it."

Just how Santa Monica will deal with Comfort Care Group is uncertain,
considering that the City Council has never tackled the issue of
medical marijuana centers.

"It's never been discussed in a public session nor has it been
agendized in a closed session," said Santa Monica Councilman Mike
Feinstein. "It's never even been on the radar."

Officials in the city attorney's office said they were unaware of
Comfort Care Group because the company does not have a Santa Monica
business license. Under the municipal code, all businesses in the city
need such a license.

Corchado said his company only recently incorporated in Nevada and
that he hopes to soon obtain a business license and storefront to
better serve the approximately 40 regular customers who depend on
Comfort Care Group for their medicine and another 60 members who visit
the condominium less frequently.

Corchado said his company buys no marijuana on the black market.
Instead, some of the cannabis it sells is grown on-site and the rest
is purchased from two outside growers, whom Corchado maintains are
allowed to cultivate marijuana under Proposition 215.

Police officials may have a different interpretation of the law,
however.

In early August, for example, the Ventura County Sheriff's Department
arrested four Ventura County residents, all medicinal marijuana
patients, for cultivating some 340 pot plants to supply the Cannabis
Resource Center in West Hollywood.

Ironically, the same department returned a confiscated marijuana plant
to a patient last week, citing ambiguities in Proposition 215.

Even if Comfort Care Group's supply remains intact, it is unclear when
Corchado will be able to afford the storefront of his dreams.

While he does sell marijuana for a profit, he said the $45,000 that
his company grossed last year earned a profit of $15,000, which is not
enough to allow him to rent a store. As a result, he must continue to
operate out of his residence, finding clients through word of mouth.

By comparison, the Cannabis Resource Center has nearly $1 million in
annual expenses, which it covers through the sliding-scale
contributions of its 845 members.

Corchado insists that his goal is not to make money, but to help the
sick.

"All the money we've made we've thrown right back at the patients,"
said Corchado, who was one of the organizers of the Millennium Medical
Marijuana March in April in Washington, D.C. "What we want to do is
stay low-profile and show that we're doing something for the patients
and not for us." Whether that means operating as a for-profit or
nonprofit, he only wishes that the government would establish hard and
fast rules. "Uncle Sam has to make up his mind," he said.

A BUSINESS UNLIKE ANY OTHER

On the other side of town, Scott Imler, also a medical marijuana
patient, runs the Cannabis Resource Center in West Hollywood in a much
different fashion.

The nonprofit organization has fostered an open relationship with the
city, which supports the center.

In fact, the city recently approved a $350,000 combination grant and
loan that has enabled the Cannabis Resource Center to purchase the
commercial building on Santa Monica Boulevard out of which it operates.

In addition, the city will host the Millennium Medical Marijuana March
and Rally from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday in West Hollywood Park at San
Vicente and Santa Monica boulevards.

"The city has made a conscientious public policy position that we
support the use of medicinal marijuana," said West Hollywood Mayor
Jeffrey Prang.

"We recognize that there are unresolved issues . . . but we are also
determined that we are not going to allow outdated prejudices and
posturing to interfere with efforts to give aid and comfort to the
sick and dying."

Deputy Don Mueller of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's
West Hollywood division said that the Cannabis Resource Center has not
caused problems for deputies.

"We are basically in agreement with City Hall in allowing them to
continue as long as there is no illicit use coming from the center,"
he said. "So far they're doing a good job."

Imler said the reason his center has fostered an open relationship
with the city is a desire to confront the many issues raised by
Proposition 215.

"We want to shine the light of day on medical marijuana," he said.
"And when you're going to shine the light of day on it, you've got to
make sure your house is in order."

Part of those housekeeping responsibilities include maintaining what
Imler calls the strictest rules for a cannabis club in California.

The Cannabis Resource Center does not accept membership cards from
other access facilities, preferring instead to complete its own
background check on patients and doctors.

"We were strict because we didn't want to be closed down. We didn't
want DEA [federal Drug Enforcement Administration] agents getting in
here," Imler said. "We were strict because we think the cavalier
attitude on the part of many medical marijuana advocates has been
detrimental to the cause."

But with more than 800 members, the Cannabis Resource Center is unable
to grow enough marijuana on-site to meet demands. To make up the
difference, the center procures about one-third of its cannabis from
the black market. Last year alone, it purchased more than $213,000
from illegal drug dealers.

Imler said now that the center will own the property on which it
operates, it will be able to grow more marijuana on-site. But if
supplies run low, Imler said he would rather buy cannabis on the black
market than make members scour the streets for it.

"I think it's worth it to our members that they don't have to go out
on the black market to get it," he said. "It's worth it to them that
we can get it in bulk and they can come to a safe place to pick it
up."

Imler said he would give up his center if patients could obtain
medical marijuana in a pharmacy.

"The day [the patients] are not knocking on my door, I will be happy,"
he said. "The day that they put this in a pharmacy, I feel that we
will have reached our ultimate goal."

ABOVE OR BELOW THE RADAR SCREEN?

When that day will arrive, if ever, is unclear as centers continue to
remain in a precarious position four years after Californians passed
Proposition 215.

And in the end, the differences between organizations may matter
little, as long as state officials think the centers are trafficking
in a controlled substance.

"Whether it's for profit or not, I don't think that distinction
salvages the operation one way or another in the sense that it's still
against the law in the state of California to furnish or sell
marijuana," DeAlba said.

Medical marijuana advocates say the vagaries of Proposition 215 forced
centers to establish their own operating rules.

"There was no book or guide on how to open a cannabis club or run a
cannabis club," said Eastman, who helped set up both Westside clubs.
"When we set this up, there were no rules or regulations . . . We did
it on our own."

John Duran, an attorney for the Cannabis Resource Center, said he
thinks it is important for facilities to maintain a working
relationship with the cities in which they operate.

Cannabis Resource Center "is a model for how law enforcement and
medical marijuana advocates could work together to follow the law," he
said.

But West Hollywood resident Tom Demille, 45, who has AIDS and is a
member of both Comfort Care Group and Cannabis Resource Center, is
pleased that he has two options to choose from so that people like
himself who survive on scant resources aren't lost in the shuffle.

"We're paving new ground here, and I think the most important part of
this groundbreaking is to include the indigent," he said. "This is
America, and if we're going to say yes to this then we need to have
some healthy competition."