CALIFORNIA CLUB GETS JUDGE'S OK TO DISPENSE MEDICAL MARIJUANA

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday opened the door for one
California club to distribute marijuana to seriously ill patients, saying
the US government had failed to show why some people should be barred from
using the drug as medicine.

In a move advocates said marked the first time a judge has overruled federal
laws banning marijuana, US District Court Judge Charles Breyer told the
Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative it could once again serve sick
people--such as AIDS and cancer patients--who would suffer ``imminent harm''
if they do not get cannabis.

Breyer's order modified an injunction he granted two years ago that shut the
dispensaries of the Oakland group and five other California medical
marijuana clubs for violating federal narcotics laws.

The Oakland club challenged the injunction, and last year a three-judge
panel of a federal appeals court instructed Breyer to revisit the issue,
saying he had not given proper weight to the possibility that marijuana was
an ``indispensable treatment'' for people served by the cooperative.

In his order Monday, Breyer said he was changing his mind about the Oakland
dispensary because government attorneys had ''still not offered any evidence
to rebut the (club's) evidence that cannabis is medically necessary for a
group of seriously ill individuals.''

Gretchen Michael, a spokeswoman for the US Justice Department in Washington,
DC, said officials were reviewing Breyer's decision and would have no
immediate comment.

Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland club, said Breyer's order
opened the first legal loophole in federal laws banning any use of
marijuana.

``We're very, very glad that the wisdom of the court has overturned the
decision that shut down our dispensary ... and has allowed for the first
historic move forward to exempt, under the federal law, dispensation of
medical cannabis.''