MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that there is no medical
necessity defense under federal laws prohibiting any use or possession of
marijuana - but did not invalidate California's state law exempting
patients with a recommendation from a licensed physician - medical
marijuana users and advocates in California have been waiting for a federal
assault.

Whether the DEA's confiscation of plants and medical records from a
physician in Cool, Calif., was the beginning of a campaign or collateral
damage is still not clear. What is clear, from this example and others, is
that five years after voters gave patients the right to use marijuana
without "criminal prosecution or sanction" by passing Prop. 215, patients
are still vulnerable.

Dr. Marion Fry, a cancer patient herself, runs the California Medical
Research Center in El Dorado County, with her attorney husband Dale
Schafer. It caters to patients with a medical need for marijuana, providing
both medical and legal consultation as well as workshops on cultivation and
therapeutic ingestion, but not cannabis. The confidentiality of the
center's records is protected by doctor-patient and attorney- client
privileges.

On Sept. 28 an armed DEA team raided the couple's home, seizing the 32
plants Dr. Fry grew for her own personal use and the center's records. Dr.
Fry and her 14-year-old son were handcuffed and forced to lie face-first in
the dirt for 45 minutes, according to her daughter Heather. No charges were
filed.

Last Thursday Federal Magistrate Gregory Hollows asked for briefs and set a
hearing for Oct. 22 to decide whether federal agents should have access to
the center records, which are currently sealed, to fish for evidence of
"aiding and abetting" marijuana distribution.

If charges are filed the case could be a vehicle to raise issues like
states' rights and federalism that the Supreme Court chose to ignore.

This case might be a first salvo in a campaign by new DEA chief Asa
Hutchinson, who took office only weeks ago. Or it might have developed
almost accidentally from a separate cultivation case the feds were pursuing
that involved a couple of members of the center.

It may be only a coincidence that the DEA raid occurred a few weeks after a
raid - no charges yet - on Orange County Patient Doctor Nurse Support Group
founder Marvin Chavez by Santa Ana Police and the conviction in Long Beach
of patient Marie Rutledge.

All this might not be a conspiracy to nullify the law passed by voters in
1996. But local law enforcement agencies are hardly rushing toward full and
cooperative implementation of the voters' desire to permit a small "white
market'' for legitimate medical marijuana patients.

We'll be watching.