MARIJUANA MEDICINE

- -Oakland, CA

As activists praise a federal judge's decision clearing the way for an
Oakland club to distrubute mauijuana for medicinal purposes, Wayne Johnson
hopes it will help him avoid the risk of buying it on the street.

"I really appreciate it," said Johnson, who suffers from chronic back pain.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Monday modified a 1998 order
forbidding marijuana sales at the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative,
saying the government hasn't proven why seriously ill patients should be
denied the drug.

"It's a historic day," said Jeff Jones, executive director of the coop.

John Entwhistle, spokesman for the group that wrote Proposition 215, the
1996 ballot measure authorizing medical marijuana, called the decision a
beginning. "We think at least the feds are starting to recognize the
strength and reallity of the medical necessity of using mauijuana as
medicine, at least for certain conditions."