CALIFORNIA LIGHTS UP TO RE-IGNITE MARIJUANA ISSUE

ANDREA Tischler is perched atop ground zero of California's escalating
medicinal-marijuana wars. She and a partner have just opened the United
States' first "bed, bud & breakfast" business, a Victorian inn with a
backyard oasis where medicinal pot users can fire up right next to the
clothing-optional hot tub.

"This inn will be a comfort zone for people with a medical need for
marijuana," said Ms Tischler, a former schoolteacher. "While it may be the
nation's first, many more will follow."

The Compassion Flower Inn opened on the heels of a new city ordinance in
Santa Cruz that allows people with diseases such as AIDS, cancer and
arthritis to legally grow and use pot.

Defying federal authorities, Santa Cruz is one of several California
communities that has jump-started efforts to put the state's controversial
medicinal-marijuana law into practice.

State voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996 to permit the sick to obtain
marijuana under a doctor's care. But federal prosecutors closed six cannabis
buyers' clubs in northern California, saying marijuana use was still illegal
under US law. State legislators have steered clear, backing off from a
proposal for a cardholder system that would allow registered
medicinal-marijuana users, providers and growers to avoid arrest.

"This issue has been a political hot potato," said Anthony Condotti,
assistant city attorney in Santa Cruz. "So cities and counties at the
grassroots level have taken the lead."

Both the Santa Cruz law and the bed and breakfast inn are being closely
monitored, not only by cities statewide but also by the Clinton
administration.

"Marijuana remains a prohibited controlled substance," said Gretchen Michael
of the US Department of Justice. "What we say to people in Santa Cruz is
that no matter what laws you pass, the federal government could still come
knocking."

Santa Cruz city council member Mike Rotkin said the city was not looking for
a fight with the federal government. "But the need for this law is so great,
it's worth the risk," Mr Rotkin said. "How do you tell a cancer patient
enduring painful chemotherapy they can have morphine but not marijuana. It's
just so illogical."

The Santa Cruz ordinance was inspired by Valerie Corral, a
medicinal-marijuana user who has provided free pot to dying friends and
relatives. Since 1993, at a secret mountain location, she has helped run the
WO/MEN's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which has dispensed the drug free
of charge to more than 200 sick and terminally ill people around Santa Cruz.

"To make this concept palatable to the feds, we've got to take the
profiteering out of medicinal marijuana," said Ms Corral, who said she
regularly smokes pot to counteract the pain from epilepsy. She was on a
medicinal-marijuana task force created last year by state attorney-general
Bill Lockyer.

Ms Corral approached Santa Cruz city officials in 1998 about a new law and
immediately won their backing. She is now lobbying Santa Cruz County
officials to approve a similar law. "If enough communities follow suit with
a patchwork of different medical-pot laws, state legislators will have to
step in and bring some order to implementing Proposition 215," Mr Rotkin
said.

Proposition 215 did not set standards for the amount of marijuana medicinal
users could possess. In Mendocino county, authorities devised the numbers:
patients apply to the county Health Department for an ID card that allows
them to possess up to six marijuana plants and 900 grams of marijuana.

"That may sound like a lot, but marijuana is a once-a-year crop," said
Mendocino county district attorney Norm Vroman. "If you run out, you can't
go to the grocery store to buy more." The move had wide support in the
county, he added. "California voters have allowed for people with medical
need for pot to have the drug," he said. "That the feds or state legislators
think it's politically incorrect is beside the point in Mendocino County."

It's also a moot point at the Compassion Flower Inn. But guests won't find
any complementary joints on their pillows. Said Ms Tischler: "This is
strictly a bring-your-own affair."