NEW CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA GUIDELINES AIM TO FLESH OUT VAGUE LAW

Even as state Attorney General Jerry Brown was preparing to release
new medical-marijuana guidelines praised by advocates, his narcotics
agents were busting a Southern California dispensary.

Mixed messages? Not necessarily. Both Brown and medical marijuana
advocates say the new guidelines issued Monday finally flesh out the
state's notoriously vague 1996 Compassionate Use Act and pose a
threat only to illegal drug dealers using the voter-approved medical
marijuana law as a smoke screen.

"We've always believed that dispensaries should be regulated as
opposed to the 'Wild, Wild West' situation," said Americans for Safe
Access Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who conferred with the state on
these guidelines. "Many, if not most, of the clubs are already in
compliance, and I think in the not-so-distant future the vast
majority of them will be. They wanted guidelines too, so they'd know
what to do to comply with California law."

The most important part of these guidelines are their recognition
that storefront medical marijuana dispensaries can operate legally,
Elford said Thursday.

"It's our view, then, that localities passing outright bans on
dispensaries are acting contrary to California law," he said.

Brown doesn't necessarily agree.

"I don't want to go beyond the guidelines," he said Friday, adding
local dispensary bans are "a whole other question that I have to talk
to my lawyers about, I don't want to give an opinion off the top of my head."

Several Bay Area cities, including Concord, Dublin, El Cerrito,
Fremont, Hercules and Livermore, have the sort of dispensary bans of
which Elford spoke. Concord Senior Assistant City Attorney Mark
Boehme said Friday he hasn't fully reviewed the guidelines yet --
"and that's all they are: guidelines, they're not legally binding" --
and nobody has contacted the city about challenging the legitimacy of
its 2005 dispensary ban.

Elford also said the guidelines send "a clear message to the federal
government that dispensaries are here to stay, and "... that they
should stop busting dispensaries because we can police are own."

Fremont City Attorney Harvey Levine said, "Marijuana distribution
violates federal law, and last time I looked, it doesn't get you in
trouble to abide by federal law."

Yet most recent federal raids have targeted dispensaries, which
federal authorities claim are criminal enterprises that wouldn't meet
Brown's new criteria, anyway.

And, asked whether it's significant that Brown issued the guidelines
just a few days after his Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement raided a
Northridge marijuana dispensary, Elford replied, "I hope not "... I
don't know about the timing."

Brown said the only thing to read into the timing is that "we've been
looking at some of the clinics that are flagrantly violating the
law." The Northridge club was raided as an outgrowth of another,
unrelated investigation, he said, but other clubs are under scrutiny.

Many communities remain antagonistic to dispensaries, he noted. "In
the Bay Area you don't feel the same intensity as when you're talking
to people in Riverside and San Bernardino and San Diego and parts of
the valley."

Brown's 11-page document says a collective dispensary can't be
operated for profit and must have a defined organizational structure
including detailed records proving users are legitimate patients with
doctors' recommendations.

"The collective should not purchase marijuana from, or sell to,
non-members; instead, it should only provide a means for facilitating
or coordinating transactions between members," the new guidelines
say. "(T)he cycle should be a closed circuit of marijuana cultivation
and consumption with no purchases or sales to or from non-members. To
help prevent diversion of medical marijuana to nonmedical markets,
collectives and cooperatives should document each member's
contribution of labor, resources, or money to the enterprise. They
also should track and record the source of their marijuana."

Dispensaries, for example, "that merely require patients to complete
a form summarily designating the business owner as their primary
caregiver -- and then offering marijuana in exchange for cash
'donations' -- are likely unlawful." Excessive amounts of marijuana
and cash; failure to follow local and state laws applicable to
similar businesses, such as licenses and tax payments; weapons;
illegal drugs; sales to or purchases from non-members; and
distribution outside California are red flags for law enforcement,
the guidelines say.

Elford said the "closed circuit" idea aligns with Americans for Safe
Access' interpretation of Senate Bill 420, a 2003 law that tried to
flesh out a structure for implementing and obeying the 1996 law. And
the guidelines crystallize protections for individuals as well,
directing police on when it is and isn't appropriate to make
marijuana arrests of people with state-or local-issued ID cards or
doctors' recommendations," he said. "We will have a very aggressive
campaign to make sure localities comply with the guidelines as well
as dispensaries."

Brown is running for governor in 2010, so this is a good time both to
flex some "tough on crime" muscles -- the Attorney General's job,
after all -- while also mending fences with advocates for a cause
still supported by most Californians. But Brown said he was only
heeding the call of local law enforcement.

"It clarifies the rules and makes it easier for law enforcement to do
their jobs "... and the users and advocates are happy because it
re-stated what is permitted by the initiative and the statute," he
said. "It did what law is supposed to do -- it set the ground rules
for action both by individuals and by the government."