JUDGE HINTS AT RULING IN MEDICAL POT CASE

Medical marijuana clubs, trying to revive their challenge to a federal
shutdown after last year's U.S. Supreme Court rebuff, got little
encouragement from a federal judge yesterday.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer did not rule immediately on arguments by
dispensaries in Oakland and Marin County that enforcement of the federal ban
on marijuana violated California's constitutional prerogatives and patients'
right to be free of needless pain.

But Breyer spent most of the hearing, held in San Francisco, asking lawyers
whether the clubs would promise not to distribute marijuana if he ruled in
the government's favor, a line of questioning that seemed to signal his
intentions.

He got no firm commitments, and eventually agreed to issue a written
decision first.

The clubs have already promised to appeal any unfavorable ruling to the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

In the meantime, an injunction issued by Breyer at the Justice Department's
request remains in effect, forbidding distribution of marijuana by the
Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, the Marin Alliance for Medical
Marijuana in Fairfax, and another dispensary in Ukiah.