8 IN PATIENTS GROUP BUSTED IN DRUG RAID

At least eight members of a patients group that buys marijuana for medicinal
use were busted last night in a raid on their lower East Side headquarters,
police said.

Cops broke up the weekly meeting of the New York Medical Marijuana Patients
Cooperative which provides pot to cancer and AIDS patients.

A Police Department spokesman said officers arrested three members of the
group for selling pot and ticketed five others for possessing small amounts
of the drug.

But an attorney for the cooperative insisted that at least 11 of its members
were arrested when police raided its offices at 130 E. 7th St. at around 8
p.m.

The lawyer, Stanley Cohen, said the members have found marijuana to be the
best way to combat the pain caused by their diseases and the uncomfortable
side effects of treatments such as chemotherapy in the case of cancer
patients.

California allows marijuana use for medical purposes and efforts are
underway to legalize it for such use in other parts of the country.

The drug remains strictly illegal for all purposes in New York, although
doctors can prescribe Marinol, an expensive, and many say, less effective
synthetic form of the drug.

The New York Medical Marijuana Patients Cooperative was formed about 18
months ago from the remnants of several similar organizations, said Cohen.

He said its members tend to be poor, minority AIDS patients -- some of whom
live on the streets and cannot afford more costly forms of treatment.

"This is a group that meets an important need on the lower East Side," said
Cohen. "We're talking about an area with high AIDS rates and low health
insurance rates."

He said those who had been arrested were being held overnight for
arraignment.

"Anyone who has had a family member or friend go through this type of
medical crises can't help but feel outraged over the persecution of these
types of organizations," Cohen added.