MEDICAL MARIJUANA CATCH-22 FOR S.F.

Proposed Rules Could Unintentionally Assist Federal Prosecution

Federal drug agents who want to crack down on marijuana use in San
Francisco, medical or otherwise, say the city's plan to regulate the drug
may give law enforcement what it needs to do its job: a paper trail.

Documents such as business permits, licenses and financial records do not
exist at many of the 43 known pot clubs in San Francisco. But new city
regulations -- including some proposed last week by Mayor Gavin Newsom --
could force clubs to begin keeping such records.

"Yes, we can subpoena documents," said Lawrence Mendosa, assistant special
agent in charge for the San Francisco Field Division of the Drug
Enforcement Administration.

Those documents would assist federal agents in mapping the infrastructure
of the marijuana distribution system in the city, he said.

While many pot club operators and medical marijuana users in San Francisco
agree the city needs regulations, the record-keeping issue most certainly
will be raised today when a Board of Supervisors committee meets for the
first time to explore marijuana regulations.

Newsom, who describes himself as a strong proponent of medical marijuana,
says the threat of DEA action because of city regulation is "a legitimate
question that should be explored."

The DEA's mission is to stop the sale, use, possession and cultivation of
illegal substances Northern California -- and marijuana is second on its
priority list, after methamphetamine.

"Our responsibility is to enforce federal law and to bring justice those
who violate the law," Mendosa said. "Whether it's legal in the state really
doesn't affect what we do."

The DEA has raided clubs and crops across the state but so far has not
conducted a wide-scale assault on clubs in San Francisco, which has more
dispensaries than any other city in the nation, according to marijuana
activists.

Drug policy experts say it's clear why pot clubs refuse to keep financial
records.

"If you file a state return reporting tax payments to undertake a federally
prohibited activity, activity, you're basically providing evidence to the
federal government," said Peter Reuter, a professor at the University of
Maryland and co-author of the book "Drug War Heresies."

Reuter said San Francisco will be entering what he calls the "netherworld"
of creating rules for an illegal substance. He said the Netherlands, where
marijuana use officially is prohibited, is also in that realm and it
creates constant problems.

"For many years, cities struggled with what they could do and couldn't.
Coffee shops would test out the limits, and cities would struggle to
respond," he said. The Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center had an
open-book policy, until it was shut down by the federal government in
October 2001, said Dale Gieringer, California state coordinator for the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "They recorded
every ounce: where it came from, what it cost them, where it went. That's
what got them into trouble. (The Justice Department) got the books and
closed them," Gieringer said. One of the recommendations Newsom made last
week is that dispensaries would have to open their books to city inspectors
to verify that they're operating as a not-for-profit business cooperative
or collective, as required by the state, and that only primary caregivers
and authorized patients are buying the marijuana.

Among Newsom's other suggestions were zoning requirements, advertising
regulation and good neighbor" policies that would create a grievance
process for residents living near a club.

"As a business owner, that's not something I would want," Newsom said. "But
the businesses I run ... the government does come in and audit my books all
the time. ... It's no different than anyone else."

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who is leading the Board of Supervisors effort,
said he thinks new regulations will demystify clubs and pull them out of a
subterranean atmosphere.

"There's always that threat (of DEA action). But I think that threat is
lessened more by regulating the clubs. If the Department of Public Health
is the driver of this, we have advanced our ability to rely on
doctor-patient confidentiality," he said.

Mirkarimi wants to look at new rules for all three parts of the medical
marijuana infrastructure -- the clubs, the doctors and the growers -- and
said the most logical places to start are zoning, public health, planning
and land use.

He said the ultimate goal of a functioning medical marijuana system is
legalization of the substance. That's exactly what's driving the federal
government to raid clubs and crops, said Robert Mac- Coun, a professor of
public policy and law at UC Berkeley who authored the book with Reuter.
"The reform effort has been led by drug law reformers, not patient groups.
The federal government is upset about this not because people dying from
cancer are smoking marijuana, but because they see it as a slippery slope,"
MacCoun said. "The fact of the matter is, the federal government is
fighting marijuana legalization." Proposed rules for medical marijuana

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom last week proposed a number of regulations
he would like the Board of Supervisors to impose on medical marijuana clubs
in the city, which now number 43. The recommendations, many of which are
modeled after state provisions regulating medical cannabis, include:

1. Forbidding the clubs to operate within 1,000 feet of places where young
people congregate, such as playgrounds, parks, schools or youth centers, or
within 500 feet of another dispensary.

2. Prohibiting the drinking of alcohol on the premises.

3. Making club records available to city inspectors to verify they are
meetingstate requirements to operate as a not-for-profit cooperative or
collective.

4. Ensuring that only primary caregivers and authorized patients are buying
the marijuana.

5. Requiring owners to get Planning Department approval and to notify
neighbors of their intent to open a club.

6. Restricting advertising of the clubs to medical and public health
communities,such as hospitals and clinics.

7. Requiring that the clubs adhere to good-neighbor policies to prevent
such nuisances as loitering, excessive noise and illegal parking around the
facilities.