CASE AGAINST POT CLINIC STAFF IS THROWN OUT

All charges against five people connected to a medicinal marijuana clinic
shut down by police earlier this year in Hillcrest were dismissed yesterday
by a judge who questioned why the case was even prosecuted.

San Diego Superior Court Judge William Mudd said the ambiguity and
confusion surrounding Proposition 215, in which state voters in 1996
legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes, left the five
defendants in "an untenable position."

"They took all steps necessary to comply with the statute," Mudd said. But
the law is so "botched up" that what is legal in other parts of the state
is illegal here, he added.

The five clinic workers were arrested in April, when the California
Alternative Medicinal Center on Fourth Avenue was closed by police after
three undercover purchases of marijuana totaling $400 earlier in the year.

The purchases were made by a former volunteer at the clinic who was the
caretaker for a man suffering from AIDS. The former volunteer agreed to
cooperate with police after detectives unsuccessfully used an undercover
sheriff's deputy.

Clinic officials twice refused to sell to the deputy, first because she
didn't have a doctor's recommendation and then because she presented a
false recommendation from a nonexistent doctor.

All the defendants were facing as much as six years in prison if they had
been convicted of selling marijuana. All have been allowed to remain free
without bail since their arrests. They are Carolyn Konow and her son Steven
Rohr, who co-owned the for-profit clinic, and Amy Toosley, Daniel O'Neil
and Howard Rogers, who worked there.

Konow was a member of state Attorney General Bill Lockyer's task force that
made recommendations to establish a medical-marijuana registry run by the
state health department. The proposal died in the Assembly last fall.

"We were never doing anything wrong," Konow said outside court yesterday.

The clinic had been in operation for more than two years and had about
1,000 clients, Konow said.

After Mudd dismissed the charges, the defendants hugged each other and
whooped with joy.

Mudd said he couldn't understand why prosecutors hadn't tried to settle the
case and clarify the law in the civil courts rather than charging the
clinic workers with "irreducible felonies."

Defense attorneys yesterday argued that at least four cities in Northern
California, including San Francisco and San Jose, have enacted ordinances
which, if adopted here, would make it completely legal for the clinic to
operate.

Several weeks ago, the San Diego City Council passed a resolution urging
District Attorney Paul Pfingst to speed up the development of guidelines
for police to follow in cases of the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

David Hamlin, a spokesman for the clinic, said it is unclear if the clinic
will try to reopen. Given the unclear state of the law, he said, "I think
anyone will think long and hard before going back into the business."

Prosecutor Julie Korsmeyer said the District Attorney's Office will appeal
Mudd's decision within a few weeks. All of the documents and marijuana
seized from the clinic and the homes of employees will remain with
prosecutors until a final decision has been rendered.

"This needs to be clarified," Korsmeyer said of the law. "This is what
happens when you have a poorly written proposition. Nobody knows what you
can do and what you can't do."