FEDERAL MAGISTRATE TO HEAR ARGUMENTS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A federal magistrate will hear arguments Oct. 22 to decide
if records for more than 5,000 Northern California medical marijuana users
can be viewed by federal authorities.

Chief Magistrate Gregory Hollows set the hearing Thursday in a courtroom
packed with medical marijuana users, several in wheelchairs.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency seized thousands of records Sept. 28 from
the California Medical Research Center in El Dorado County in what was
portrayed as an investigation into alleged marijuana distribution. Clinic
owners Dr. Mollie Fry and her attorney husband, Dale Schafer, deny selling
marijuana or certificates to buy it.

Neither was arrested and the seized records of their clients, which include
several hundred South Shore residents, remain sealed.

The two-year-old clinic in the town of Cool charges $200 to determine if
people can use marijuana for medical conditions from cancer to chronic pain.
If they qualify under 1996's Proposition 215, which bars criminal
prosecution for using marijuana for medical conditions, they are referred to
cannabis ''clubs'' elsewhere for marijuana.

Agents seized 32 marijuana plants that Fry keeps for personal use. She is a
breast cancer survivor and medical marijuana patient.

U.S. Attorney Anne Pings argued Thursday that the records are relevant to
her department's investigation and a possible case that clinic
recommendations of eligibility represent ''aiding and abetting'' marijuana
sales.

Clinic attorney J. David Dick, who specializes in marijuana cases, said he
will ask that the records be returned.

''This, in essence, is the seizure of every single case file in an
attorney's office,'' he said. ''This is why there are so many people here.
They're concerned with their privacy rights.''

Pings, citing a ''crime-fraud exception,'' told the chief magistrate that
traditional attorney-client privilege does not apply to the records.

''Theoretically, the government is entitled to know what individuals
purchased marijuana or were informed about the opportunity to purchase
marijuana,'' she said.

After the hearing, Schafer told more than 60 people who attended, ''Nobody
has a right to look at your records.'' He said, ''It's going to be over my
dead body.''

Heather Schafer, a clinic worker and daughter of Schafer and Fry, said ''We
anticipated that our lines were tapped, that the government didn't like what
we were doing.''

Wheelchair-bound Dee Blanc of Placerville said she dropped to 81 lbs. before
she began using marijuana to gain weight.

''I'm a chronic pain patient,'' she said.

Kimberly Craft of Placerville said, ''We have a state law that protects us.
I'm afraid they're going to put us on a list and decide who's next.''