JUDGE GIVES GROUP THE OK TO MARKET POT

Supporters Believe Ill Patients Benefit From Medical Marijuana

The Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative can resume dispensing marijuana as
medicine under some conditions, thanks to a federal judge's landmark
decision to lift a two-year ban Monday.

Federal law until now has stymied state medical marijuana efforts, and some
advocates hailed Monday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer
of San Francisco as the first partial felling of that barrier.

"This is a sweeping decision," said John Entwhistle, spokesman for
Californians for Compassionate Use, the group behind California's
successful 1996 medical marijuana ballot measure. "It's the beginning of
something big because they're basically validating our core argument --
that medical marijuana saves lives."

State and federal lawmakers still must act to make medical marijuana
legally and easily available, he said, "but that's OK, they're going to get
it eventually. This stuff will be available in pharmacies soon."

Jeff Jones, the Oakland cooperative's executive director, was elated.

"I didn't think the federal government was going to lose in its own court
of law," he said at a news conference Monday evening at Oakland City Hall.

He called Breyer's decision "very fair and compassionate to the patients
who qualify" and said the cooperative will begin dispensing marijuana again
"as soon as possible," once its lawyers tailor its procedures to conform
with the ruling.

U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Gretchen Michael said only that
government lawyers are reviewing the decision.

Proposition 215 of 1996 was meant to let seriously-ill patients with a
doctor's assent get and use marijuana without fear of prosecution. Cancer
and AIDS patients use the drug's appetite-boosting effect to combat nausea
and weight loss; others use it to fight symptoms of glaucoma, arthritis,
migraine, multiple sclerosis and other ills.

But Breyer closed the Oakland cooperative and five other Northern
California clubs in 1998 after the Justice Department argued federal law
absolutely forbids marijuana distribution and use, regardless of state
laws. The Oakland cooperative stopped dispensing the drug to more than
2,500 members while filing the only appeal to the closure.

Last September, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told Breyer to
reconsider the case and let the cooperative claim a medical necessity for
dispensing marijuana.

"The government has still not offered any evidence to rebut defendants'
evidence that cannabis is medically-necessary for a group of seriously-ill
individuals," Breyer wrote in Monday's ruling. "Instead, the government
continues to press arguments which the Ninth Circuit rejected."

So Breyer concluded that modifying the injunction "is in the public
interest." He amended the 1998 order so it no longer blocks the Oakland
cooperative's dispensation of cannabis to members who suffer serious
medical conditions; need cannabis to treat or lessen their symptoms; will
suffer imminent harm without it; and have already tried all other
reasonable alternatives.

Robert Raich, the cooperative's attorney, noted state Attorney General Bill
Lockyer and the California Medical Association have asked U.S. Attorney
General Janet Reno not to seek Supreme Court review of the 9th Circuit's
September decision. The Justice Department has until July 28 to decide
whether to seek such a writ.

State officials have balked at creating an official medical marijuana
system because of the conflict with federal law. Lockyer spokesman Nathan
Barankin said he's not sure where Monday's ruling will lead, particularly
if the Justice Department appeals. For now, he allowed, it seems to
solidify medical marijuana's legal underpinnings.

"The circumstances under which medical marijuana is authorized under this
court's ruling are substantially more clear and more tightly-written than
our existing law, Proposition 215," he said.

Jones and Raich were flanked at Monday's news conference by Oakland City
Councilman Nate Miley and City Attorney Jayne Williams. They noted the city
always has backed the cooperative: the city council declared a public
health emergency in response to demand for a safe means of medical cannabis
dispensation, and designated the cooperative and Jones as city agents to
help shield them from prosecution.

Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state have
passed medical marijuana laws similar to California's; all but Maine are
within the 9th Circuit.