STOCKTON MAN WANTS MEDICAL-MARIJUANA SITE

Most mornings Michael Lang rolls out of bed, pours himself a cup of coffee,
sits on his couch and lights a joint.

The 41-year-old Stockton resident broke his neck nearly a decade ago, and
still suffers daily aches and numbness from bone spurs, bad discs in his
back and arthritis. Smoking marijuana, he said, relieves pain and enables
him to forgo nearly a dozen prescription medications with unwanted side
effects.

But Lang doesn't have any legal local source for the drug. So he last week
told county supervisors that he wants to open a store-front marijuana
dispensary in Stockton, possibly by September.

Lang is working with the San Joaquin Medical-Marijuana Association, a
branch of a nationwide organization. He also has invited the county to
establish a task force that would establish ways for law-enforcement
officials to determine if someone is lawfully possessing, selling or
growing marijuana.

"Man, I'm tired of having to drive to either the Bay Area to get my
medicine or ... to Sonora Street and get it on the black market," Lang
said. "It's the state law here. It has been for four years. Everybody's
dragging their feet."

California's Compassionate Use Initiative, enacted in 1996, enables
physicians to recommend -- but not prescribe -- that their patients use
marijuana to treat chronic pain, cancer, anorexia, AIDS, glaucoma,
arthritis and more. The law allows people with such a recommendation to
have and grow marijuana.

Law enforcement agencies in the state generally have followed the law's
letter and spirit, despite the federal government's ongoing legal
challenges. Medical-marijuana advocates in some cities even have
established marijuana dispensaries, in some cases with the cooperation of
public officials.

Now, advocates are pushing to make marijuana legally, readily and safely
available in San Joaquin County for the first time.

Officials with the District Attorney's Office and Stockton police said they
largely haven't had to consider such questions. People caught with the drug
rarely have claimed it was for medical use, and nearly all of those claims
never were proved true, they said.

Seizure medication

That's not exactly the case, however, with Stockton resident Michael Gotschall.

The 36-year-old Stockton resident pleaded guilty earlier this month to
charges of selling marijuana and now is serving a 240-day jail sentence.
But Gotschall also had a doctor's authorization to use marijuana -- a fact
that Deputy District Attorney Todd Turner said investigators verified.

In court and in an interview with The Record this week, Gotschall said a
doctor recommended that he smoke marijuana to control seizures resulting
from a head injury he received in a severe beating years ago. Marijuana is
more effective and has fewer side effects, Gotschall said, than
prescription medications he has taken.

Gotschall said he initially used only marijuana. Disabled by the seizures,
Gotschall said he began selling the drug to earn money to buy marijuana
here and from an Oakland dispensary. Some people he sold marijuana to used
it for medical reasons, though none had a doctor's authorization, he said.

Turner discounted the claim that the marijuana was only for Gotschall's
use, noting that investigators found scales and other drug-selling
paraphernalia in his apartment. Still, Superior Court Judge Richard
Guiliani has allowed Gotschall to have up to an ounce of marijuana at a
time, provided he has a doctor's recommendation, as a condition of his
five-year probation.

"I was grateful," Gotschall said of the judge's decision. He wondered
whether other judges and law enforcement officials are as open to the use
of medical marijuana.

The proposal to establish a marijuana dispensary in Stockton may move that
question to the foreground. Law-enforcement officials said they generally
won't arrest someone who can prove they have a doctor's permission to have
marijuana.

"The way we would look at these issues is, first and foremost we don't want
to be overly officious," Sheriff's Office spokesman Steve Van Meter said.
"At the same time, we don't want to make a sham of existing laws (against
the use, growing and sale of marijuana)."

Sheriff's officials have decided to write guidelines to be used in
evaluating such cases, Van Meter said. The guidelines could cover things
such as how much marijuana a person could use or have at one time and how
to establish whether a person using or possessing marijuana is doing so
legally.

Lang said medical-marijuana advocates here plan to issue identification
cards to people who have a doctor's recommendation. Law-enforcement
officials said they generally consider such cards, used by marijuana
dispensaries in other counties and cities, as proof that a person is
authorized to use marijuana.

Legal smoke and caregivers

But it's less clear if an organization may legally sell marijuana to
patients, law-enforcement officials said.

The 1996 initiative allows patients or their "primary caregivers" to have
and grow marijuana. It's unclear whether patients could designate an
organization, such as those running marijuana dispensaries, as their
primary caregiver, Assistant District Attorney Jim Willett said.

"We believe in the compassionate use of marijuana," Willett said. "But
there's an issue of whether pot clubs qualify as primary caregivers."

Federal prosecutors have vigorously challenged marijuana clubs. This week,
however, medical-marijuana advocates won a victory when a federal judge
cleared the way for an Oakland club to distribute marijuana for medicinal
purposes, saying the government hasn't proved why seriously ill patients
should be denied the drug.

Legal challenges are likely to continue, however. For Lang and other
advocates the most difficult task may be persuading area public officials
and residents of the need for a marijuana dispensary and that it would be a
bona fide operation.

No one knows how many area residents would use a dispensary, Lang said, but
those that would currently have no option but to buy it legally in the Bay
Area or illegally here. And few people have the knowledge or wherewithal to
grow their own marijuana, he added.

"People think you throw some seeds in the ground and six months later
you've got some marijuana," Lang said. "I'm not able to go out here and
make aspirin. I don't have the knowledge or the laboratory."

Plans to open a dispensary here have piqued the interest of Rose Sanchez.
The 52-year-old Stockton resident said she has been disabled since 1983
with a variety of back problems and is leery of continuing to take
prescription painkillers and muscle relaxants three times daily. Those
drugs make her nauseous and groggy, she said, and she fears long-term use
could cause liver damage.

Sanchez said she's heard that marijuana may ease her pain and plans to talk
to her doctor about getting a recommendation to use it. But she said she
doesn't know how she could legally get and use marijuana, even with a
doctor's permission.

"Now, I'm kind of afraid to try it because I don't want to get caught under
the influence," Sanchez said. "It scares me."

Changing public perceptions is critical to opening and successfully running
a marijuana dispensary, Lang said. Plans call for it to be a tightly
controlled environment with security guards and locked doors. Patients
would not be allowed to use marijuana on the premises.

"Everybody remembers the '60s and the Haight-Ashbury and peace, love,
flowers, baby," Lang said. "We're not creating a party place. ... (The
dispensary) is not a bar. It's just like going to a pharmacy. You don't sit
at the pharmacy and eat up your pills."

To reach reporter Dogen Hannah, phone 546-8273 or e-mail dhannah@recordnet.com