CASE FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

It's been nearly five years since California voters approved a ballot
measure allowing the medical use of marijuana, yet needy patients as well
as those who try to distribute the drug to them still face harassment and
potential prosecution.

Here in Santa Barbara, the nonprofit Compassionate Cannabis Center was
recently booted from its Carrillo Street offices after the landlord grew
uneasy about possible legal difficulties. As a result, the group's future
is now up in the air -- along with the help it provided more than 100 local
patients.

The center's Carrillo Street landlord wasn't necessarily overreacting.
There are legal ambiguities surrounding the issue of dispensing medical
marijuana. Fortunately, there is a relatively simple way to clear a path
through the confusion. The city could adopt a local ordinance that sets out
procedures and guidelines for legitimate medical distribution of the drug.

As it happens, the Santa Barbara City Council has been considering just
such an ordinance since September, and at 1 p.m. today its three-member
Ordinance Committee will be holding a hearing on the subject. The main item
on the committee's agenda will be testimony by medical marijuana advocates
in favor of a medical marijuana ordinance. We hope the committee -- along
with the council as a whole -- listens carefully.

Numerous anti-drug crusaders, led by federal drug czar Barry McCaffrey,
insist that the medical benefits of marijuana are exaggerated at best and
nonexistent at worst. That's nonsense.

Research has clearly shown that marijuana can help ease the severe nausea
that makes chemotherapy an intolerable ordeal for many cancer patients.
Marijuana has also been shown to be similarly effective in treating the
chronic pain and appetite loss associated with AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

Based on these findings, California advocates of medical marijuana drafted
what became known as Proposition 215, an eminently modest ballot measure
designed to legalize the medical use of marijuana by seriously or
terminally ill patients with the approval of a licensed physician. In 1996,
Proposition 215 received 55 percent of the vote. The outcome may have
seemed straightforward enough, but the result has been anything but.

Federal law continues to outlaw marijuana -- medical or otherwise -- and in
the absence of clear state or local guidelines implementing Prop. 215, the
threat of arrest or other repercussions continues to hang over patients who
use medical marijuana, distributors who provide it to them, and physicians
who recommend its use.

Across the state, a number of cities, including Arcata, Berkeley, San Jose
and Santa Cruz, have attempted to clear the air by adopting sensible
ordinances that establish guidelines for legitimate distribution networks
such as co-ops -- and at the same time provide for the kind of police
supervision necessary to prevent abuses.

While they have been studying these approaches, Santa Barbara officials
have delayed taking any such action themselves, saying they want to see how
the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a case currently before it involving a
medical-marijuana distribution program supported by the city of Oakland.
That's all well and good, but there's no telling when a decision in the
Oakland case may come. There will undoubtedly be other legal challenges and
delaying technicalities.

In the meantime, hundreds of Santa Barbara cancer, AIDS and MS patients who
could legitimately use medical marijuana languish in legal limbo. As
Westside activist and likely mayoral candidate Bruce Rittenhouse has noted,
there is nothing stopping the city from quickly adopting an ordinance to
protect medical-marijuana users and distributors from arrest, while leaving
the details -- about things such as what constitutes a proper distribution
scheme -- for later.

According to David Pryor, the founder of the Compassionate Cannabis Center,
this sort of action is precisely what he and other legitimate distributors
need to be able to serve their patients properly. In fact, working
distribution systems are already in place for pharmaceuticals used every
day for legitimate medical purposes.

For the sake of those whose suffering could so easily be relieved, we hope
council members consider the advocates' arguments -- and act accordingly,
without delay.