KAMENA RECALL BATTLE INTENSIFIES

The founder of Marin's only dispensary of medical marijuana says her
organization has joined the petition drive seeking to oust District
Attorney Paula Kamena in a special election next year - and will wield an
army of petition gatherers and a $15,000 war chest to sweep Kamena out of
office.

Lynette Shaw of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana blames Kamena for
a "100 percent eradication policy'' that steers local law enforcement
officers to pluck all marijuana plants they come upon, including those
later found to have been cultivated for legitimate medical use.

"Paula Kamena is trying to suspend Proposition 215 in Marin County,'' Shaw
said, referring to the landmark medical marijuana initiative passed by
California voters in 1996.

Kamena said Shaw is wrongly blaming her for actions of local police
departments that act independently of the criminal prosecutors in her
office. She said Shaw is using the recall effort to exact payback for
county policies toward medical marijuana with which Shaw has long disagreed.

"Whenever the police do something that Lynette Shaw finds offensive, she
seems to believe I am responsible - and that's just not correct,'' Kamena said.

The entrance of Shaw's group into the fray could mark a sharp escalation in
the battle over whether Kamena and four Marin Superior Court judges could
be recalled at the polls next year.

Shaw said four medical marijuana advocates have donated $15,000 to aid the
petition drive seeking Kamena's recall. She said the money will be used to
pay workers $1 per valid signature obtained in the petition drive, which
aims to force a special election next May asking voters to remove Kamena
from office. The recall movement needs to gather about 14,000 signatures by
Nov. 16 for an election to be called.

Kamena and four judges - Michael Dufficy, Terrence Boren, Lynn Duryee and
Verna Adams - are targeted in the petition drive, which until now focused
on decisions each elected official made in heated child custody matters.

Though the Marin Alliance is focusing its energy on Kamena, the group's
participation in the recall battle could spell bad news for the judges as
well. Shaw said many of the Alliance-sponsored signature gatherers carry
petitions with the judges' names on them.

Don Solem, the Mill Valley political consultant hired by the judges to help
counter the recall campaign, said he is not overly concerned about medical
marijuana advocates entering the recall fray.

"We have heard for more than a month that they were getting involved - they
even advertised in a West Marin newspaper looking for signature
gatherers,'' Solem said. "Since then, we haven't seen any signs of a
groundswell of support for the recall campaign against the judges.''

Solem said paying signature gatherers is a tactic used throughout the state.

"The initiative process has been taken over by paid signature-takers,'' he
said.

Shaw said her group's entrance into the campaign makes it certain that the
effort to force a recall election against Kamena will succeed. "Whether the
election includes the judges is a tougher call,'' she said.

She said the group has had three full-time signature gatherers working in
Marin for the past month, and seven part-timers. "We've recenyly hired our
own campaign consultant and we're trying to recruit more help,'' she said.

Shaw has been critical of county policies toward medical marijuana for years.

Two years ago, she called for a boycott of a county certification program
that aimed to help law enforcement officials identify legitimate users of
medical pot, and navigate the murky legal issues left in the wake of Prop.
215's passage.

Shaw's wrath intensified when it was revealed that of the eight people who
sought county certificates, three were later arrested and one had his
marijuana plants seized by authorities.

Prosecution guidelines adopted by Kamena's office last year made county
certification a central requirement for people seeking a medical exemption
to avoid prosecution for possession or cultivation of marijuana.

Shaw said the guidelines were no good because some local police departments
disregard them by seizing any marijuana they found and sending cases to the
district attorney even when guidelines had been met.

Some Alliance members have since had plants seized on several occasions,
even after Kamena's office has accepted their claims of legitimate medical
use and declined to file charges. The biggest problem, Shaw said, is that
seized plants have always been destroyed, leaving her clients without the
medicine they need.

Signs of a growing schism between Kamena and advocates of medical pot have
emerged even after a recent directive issued by Kamena's office on the
issue. The directive notified local police for the first time that her
office would not oppose legal moves to have marijuana plants returned to
patients who show authorities that they meet the provisions of Prop. 215.

Kamena's memo, issued in the wake of a federal judge's decision in July
that upheld an Oakland cannabis club's right to distribute medical pot,
also warned police that charges might not be filed even in cases where all
criteria in the district attorney's prosecution guidelines have not been met.

"We in the DA's office must base our decisions as to the proof of charges
before a jury on a case-by-case basis,'' she wrote.

Kamena said her record on medical marijuana is being "distorted'' by Shaw
because she has a "personal disagreement'' with county policies.

"The sad thing is that we in the DA's office have made a very heroic and
valiant effort to try to get the law enforcement community to agree to
guidelines that they can live with and that are reasonable and
compassionate toward the medical marijuana group,'' Kamena said.

Contact Guy Ashley via e-mail at gashley@marinij.com.