CLOUDY FUTURE FOR MARIJUANA AS A MEDICINE

Medical Marijuana Stores Have Met With Resistance in the South Bay
and Three California Counties Claim in a Lawsuit That the Measure
Approved by Voters in 1996 Is Illegal.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A decade ago, California voters were the nation's
first to approve medical marijuana, and 10 other states have since
followed suit. But the future of the landmark California statute is
no clearer now than when voters headed to the polls Nov. 5, 1996.

The federal government still refuses to recognize Proposition 215,
the Compassionate Use Act approved by 56 percent of voters. And U.S.
authorities under both the Clinton and Bush administrations have won
nearly every major legal battle over the measure.

"We refer to it as marijuana, not medical marijuana, regardless of
its reported destination or use," said Drug Enforcement
Administration spokeswoman Casey McEnry, noting that marijuana is an
illegal controlled substance under federal law.

The government's war on drugs has also prompted a civil war of sorts
within California: three of the state's 58 counties, headed by San
Diego County, claim in a lawsuit filed in state court that the
measure is illegal.

A hearing is set for Nov. 16 in the lawsuit, which threatens to
derail the state's legal tolerance for the medicinal use of a drug
that federal law places in the same category as heroin, cocaine and LSD.

A victory for those renegade counties might also set legal precedent
undermining medical marijuana laws in other states with such laws --
Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode
Island, Vermont and Washington. Voters in South Dakota will consider
a medical marijuana measure on Tuesday.

"The state cannot authorize somebody to do something that breaks
federal law," said Thomas Bunton, senior deputy counsel for San Diego County.

Medical marijuana is used by thousands of people suffering from AIDS,
cancer, anorexia, chronic pain, arthritis, migraines and other
illnesses, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. The nation's
medical marijuana laws generally allow those with a doctor's
recommendation to grow or possess small amounts of the drug.

In 1999, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences expressed
concern about the risks of smoking marijuana, but acknowledged in a
report that "there is no clear alternative for people suffering from
chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such
as pain or AIDS wasting."

Later research suggests it might reduce tumor proliferation and a
study this year by the University of California, San Francisco showed
marijuana "may offer significant benefit" to those suffering from hepatitis C.

The Food and Drug Administration does not recognize marijuana as
having medical benefits.

California is the epicenter of the federal-state medical marijuana
battle. Communities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and
West Hollywood have authorized storefront medical marijuana dispensaries.

But medical marijuana stores have met with resistance in the South
Bay. On Thursday, a Torrance pot dispensary was shut down by the
city. Police had revoked the business license of the Green Cross two
days earlier because the police chief declared the establishment a
detriment to public health and safety. Last month federal agents
raided the dispensary and seized roughly 70 pounds of pot, nearly 100
marijuana plants, a shotgun and a small amount of cash.

Other local cities -- including Torrance -- to recently pass
temporary or permanent bans on so-called co-ops include Gardena,
Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Lawndale, Lomita, Rancho Palos Verdes and
Redondo Beach.

Proposition 215 does not expressly allow dispensaries, but Americans
for Safe Access, a pro-marijuana lobbying group, estimates there are
about 200 operating in California. For many backers of the law, it's
an imperfect way for patients to get pot.

"I thought we would have had more of a standardized distribution
system by now," said William Panser, an Oakland criminal defense
lawyer who was among the handful of attorneys who crafted the proposition.

Federal agents have raided more than two dozen California
dispensaries over the past decade, according to Americans for Safe
Access. Some communities are now assisting in the crackdown,
including San Diego, which recently shut down 13 of them.

A dozen dispensaries found on the Internet and contacted by The
Associated Press declined comment or did not return messages.

William Dolphin, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, said
dispensaries are also operating secretly in other states, even though
they are illegal. "I know they are operating in Oregon, Washington
and Colorado. It's underground," he said.

"The dispensary issue is a fascinating study in sociology," Panser
said. "It's like the speed limit, and everybody is breaking the law
but it's being tolerated."

Nowhere is medical marijuana more accepted than in San Francisco,
birthplace of the movement. The city's top prosecutor, Kamala Harris,
steadfastly supports Proposition 215.

"Sick people using medical marijuana as it relates to Proposition 215
are not criminals and will not be prosecuted," she said.

But she acknowledged that a handful of San Francisco dispensaries
raided by federal agents "were out of control" because they were
selling pot to customers without a doctor's recommendation.