MOST DOCTORS RELUCTANT TO RECOMMEND MARIJUANA

Conflicting state and federal laws about marijuana, a lack of clinical
research on the drug and threats to their livelihoods make most
doctors unwilling to recommend its medical use.

Dr. Tod Mikuriya of Berkeley, who signed the doctor's note approving
marijuana use for Redding's Richard Levin, is one exception. He said
he has been investigated by the California Medical Board for years;
and although he's never been criminally charged, he fears
prosecution.

"It's kind of like being put on the enemy's hit list, and targeting
yourself for the roving band of persecutors," he said.

The bulk of Redding's medical community is opposed to medicinal
marijuana use. Mike Arnold, executive director of the Shasta-Trinity
Medical Society, said the 200-some private doctors belonging to the
society are advised not to recommend marijuana.

"There has not been enough research that is medically justifiable, so
a lot of doctors area waiting," Arnold said.

Under federal law, writing a prescription for marijuana is illegal.
Cannabis pundits say a written recommendation is not a
prescription.

The feds disagree.

After medicinal marijuana laws passed in California and Arizona in
1996, the Washington Post reported, federal officials warned that
doctors who exercised the state laws could lose their authority to
write prescriptions.

But, the officials said, there will be "no widespread enforcement
effort" to seek out doctors for prosecution, unless they act "on such
a large scale that they in effect act as drug traffickers," the Post
reported Dec. 31, 1996.

Still, Arnold doesn't want his physicians taking the
risk.

"Federal law takes precedence, That's what we've been told," Arnold
said.

He referred to documents drawn up by the California Medical
Association, warning physicians that under federal law a patient's
marijuana use is illegal, doctor's note or not.

At the same time, the CMA states California's Compassionate Use Act
protects the state's patients who have recommendations and the doctors
who issue them.

Prosecutors are struggling to clear the haze.

California officials have made statements encouraging counties and
cities to set their own limits about how much pot a patient can grown
without fear of jail time. Some areas have approved definite rules.

In Shasta County, Undersheriff Larry Schaller has said county
officials are on the brink of releasing guidelines, possibly this
week. Like most of the state, Shasta County has thus far decided
whether to prosecute on a case-by-case basis.

State Sen. Maurice Johannessen , R-Redding, introduced a bill Friday
in Sacramento that would make it illegal for medicinal marijuana
patients to grow more than two outdoor plants or six indoor plants at
a time. Another bill intended to help clarify medical pot -- by Sen.
John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose -- is already on the Assembly floor.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department is challenging voter-approved laws
passed in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Arizona, and California
according to a November report by the Associated Press.

Until a legal precedent sticks, Shasta Community Health Center
maintains its policy against the prescription or recommendation of
marijuana, said Executive Director Dean Germano. The private,
nonprofit community health center employs 12 physicians who treat
40,000 patients, Germano said.

"We basically are saying we are not involved in that conversation
until (marijuana) is legal. It's one of those things that time will
have to shake out," Germano said.