MARIJUANA CLUB DIRECTOR RELEASED ON BAIL

A federal magistrate today approved a $1 million bail release for
the head of a Bay Area medical marijuana club that was raided
two weeks ago by federal agents. Sparky Rose, 36, director of the
New Remedies Cooperative, was one of 15 people arrested during the
Oct. 3 sweep of eight sites and the only one still in jail. He is
charged with conspiracy to grow and distribute marijuana and with
money laundering.

Today, Rose was granted bail by U.S. Magistrate Nandor Vardas with
the approval of federal prosecutors.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized nearly 13,000
marijuana plants, $125,000 and four vehicles, including Rose's
leased Porsche, at a dispensary in San Francisco's Mission District
and other sites in San Francisco and Oakland.

The raid was one of a recent series of enforcement actions by
federal authorities against medical marijuana clubs and suppliers in
California, where voters passed an initiative in 1996 allowing
patients to use the drug with a doctor's recommendation. Federal
drug law prohibits marijuana possession and cultivation, classifies
it with the most dangerous drugs and recognizes no legitimate use.

The case originated in the Los Angeles area, where a related
organization, Compassionate Caregivers, was raided last year by
federal agents, prosecutors said in court filings.

Rose worked for years in Web site design and marketing, fell victim
to a downturn in the Internet business and took a job with
Compassionate Caregivers in San Francisco in 2003, his lawyer, Nanci
Clarence, said in court papers. The local organization was renamed
New Remedies last year.

Clarence disputed an Oct. 3 assertion by Javier Pena, regional
director of the DEA, that Rose and his fellow defendants were "using
the pot clubs as facades to make millions of dollars" under the
guise of serving medical patients.

"This was not a sham," Clarence said today. "This was run in a
transparent way. He filed tax returns, he paid estimated quarterly
taxes, he paid workers' comp and health insurance and he ran it like
a business, just the way local authorities and state authorities
have asked him to.

"This is a clash between state and federal governments, and on some
level a culture war."