STOCKTONIAN LOBBIES FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Mayor May Remain Unconvinced

Michael Lang smokes two joints a day, and now he wants Stockton leaders to
consider making it easier for others to do the same.

Lang wants the city to join other municipalities around the state in
recognizing the right of residents to use marijuana medicinally.

The north Stockton man will ask Mayor Gary Podesto on Friday about the
possibility of the city's setting up regulations -- perhaps even a
registration system or a cooperative -- to provide safe access to marijuana
for those with medical needs.

"Stockton's got a bad black-market problem," Lang said. "I want some
compassion. I want these guys to recognize it as a state law in the state of
California."

Lang may have a tough time convincing the mayor or the City Council of the
need.

"(A marijuana club) is not one of the things I think that make you an
All-America City," Podesto said Monday.

Voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, in 1996, making it
legal for people suffering from certain serious medical conditions to use
marijuana if they have a doctor's recommendation or approval. Federal law
complicates matters, however, as marijuana use and possession remain federal
crimes.

Nevertheless, several cities and counties have created systems or
regulations to allow their medicinal-marijuana users to coexist peacefully
with city and county law enforcement departments while having their needs
met.

Mendocino and Tehama counties have regulations that allow
medicinal-marijuana users to cultivate their own drug. Oakland has taken the
Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative partially under its jurisdiction in
having the cooperative register and issue identification cards to the city's
users. Federal narcotics officers, however, have halted all sales on site
and the club is still fighting the government in court.

Calaveras County has created a 12-member task force to develop guidelines
for medicinal-marijuana use there.

And today, Santa Cruz City Council members will vote on an ordinance that
sets up a procedure to sanction medicinal-marijuana groups. The groups
propose to distribute information and marijuana to qualifying members. The
clubs face tight rules: They can charge only what it costs to grow the drug,
and users cannot possess more than is reasonable for their day-to-day use.

Lang began using marijuana medicinally in 1992, three years after he ran his
motorcycle off a cliff in Oregon. He crushed a disc in his back that
paralyzed him until an operation released pressure from his spinal column.
Lang still suffers from nerve damage and headaches, but the marijuana is
helping.

"My doctors hand me every kind of opiate that there is. I figure, what's one
more drug?" he said.

Lang contends that cultivating marijuana is expensive and a lot of work for
a very small yield. The ill and the disabled need a safe place where they
can get the drug.

"We pay them to grow our medicine for us," he said.

Jeffrey Jones, executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers'
Cooperative, said the synthetic, oral version of marijuana sold at
pharmacies with a prescription does not retain the same qualities as real
cannabis, and many users have found it less effective for their ailments.

"I definitely will not build a club," Vice Mayor Gloria Nomura said. "I'm
against marijuana."

Her personal opinions and the belief that the city should not be directly
involved aside, Nomura said she would support a task force to study the
issue and evaluate what other cities have done to regulate private clubs.

"I wasn't aware that there was a demand for this type of thing in the city,"
Nomura said.

Stockton Police Department spokesman Doug Anderson said narcotics officers
have run across a few residents who claim they have a doctor's prescription
to possess the drug. Those cases have been referred to the district
attorney's office for a decision. The attorney handling those cases was not
available for comment Monday afternoon.

Podesto, who will meet with Lang on Friday, is skeptical of the proposition.

"What they are asking for is a smoking club. I don't know what percentage of
people that go to them go just for reasons of getting loaded," the mayor
said.

Podesto said he needs to learn more about the medicinal-marijuana issue, but
"it's certainly not something I think that Stockton needs right now."