POT POLITICS: MARIN DA FACES RECALL

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - Pot politics have invaded upscale Marin County, with
its top prosecutor facing recall amid claims she's trampling on
California's new medical-marijuana law.

The May 22 election forced on Marin County District Attorney Paula Kamena
is the latest salvo in the war over pharmaceutical pot and one that might
be repeated. Organizers have a list of five other county prosecutors they'd
like to turn out of office.

"This could be the start of something," says Chuck Thomas, spokesman for
the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, which is not involved
in the Kamena recall but is interested in seeing how it turns out.

At issue is Proposition 215, the law approved by California voters in 1996
that allows people to use marijuana for pain relief and other medical
purposes, provided they have a note from a doctor.

Advocates say pot has a host of medical uses, including stimulating
appetite, crucial for AIDS patients smitten with wasting syndrome.

Nine states, including California, have authorized the use of medical
marijuana.

The federal government, however, remains adamant that marijuana has no
medical use, creating a conflict that has gone all the way to the Supreme
Court, where justices are considering whether medical necessity trumps the
federal bans.

Meanwhile, although Proposition 215 clearly allows use of medical
marijuana, it is vague on where patients can get it, setting no limits and
saying individuals or their primary caregivers can grow it.

That has launched spirited debates over how much is too much, and who
qualifies as a caregiver.

County officials have varied widely in how they approach the issue, with
some working closely with distribution clubs that sprang up after
Proposition 215 passed and others taking a harder line.

Kamena says she's been unfairly painted as a pot prosecutor. During her
first three years as Marin County district attorney, medical marijuana
cases made up a tiny percentage of her office caseload - 73 out of 30,000 -
and most were dismissed or ended in plea bargains.

Kamena says she's made her intentions clear by declaring she won't
prosecute if individuals have no more than six mature or 12 immature plants
and a half-pound of dry marijuana.

But, opponents say, far from being lenient, Kamena's guidelines note that
federal law makes marijuana contraband and effectively give police a
license to confiscate whether or not they make arrests.

"Every joint, every gram, every leaf, anything they can get their hands on,
it's, 'Ha, ha, ha, the DA says this is all against federal law,' " says
Lynette Shaw, director of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana and a
leader in the recall campaign. "It's been really mean, and it's hurt the
health of hundreds of people."

The Marin Alliance, based in the small town of Fairfax, still is dispensing
marijuana under an agreement with town officials, Shaw says.

Kamena says the problem is that Proposition 215 is "very convoluted and
very complex. It is, in short, a mess. The idea of people who are ill who
can benefit from marijuana - I don't have an issue with that at all."

"The only people who have any trouble understanding the law is the cops and
the district attorneys," responds Dennis Peron, who wrote Proposition 215.
"What it is they don't understand is compassion."

In Marin County, a liberal enclave of stunning views and breathtaking home
prices just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, Proposition 215 passed with 73
percent of the vote.

The recall petition against Kamena began on quite a different issue: It was
started by parents angry about child-custody cases in Marin courts. That
drive fizzled, but medical marijuana advocates later took up the cause,
getting enough signatures to force the election, which is expected to cost
$500,000.

The wording of the petition remains limited to the child-custody complaint.
Tom van Zandt, a patent attorney and brother of the parent who spearheaded
the initial drive, is running for the job if Kamena is turned out of office.