LOCKYER URGES RENO TO FORGO APPEAL OF MEDICAL-POT RULING

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has asked the U.S. Department of
Justice not to appeal a recent court ruling that opened the door to legal
medicinal use of marijuana.

In a letter last week to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Lockyer said the
ruling, permitting exemptions from federal anti-drug laws for some gravely
ill patients, was consistent with the will expressed by California voters
in 1996 in endorsing Proposition 215, the state's medical marijuana
initiative.

The ruling was handed down a month ago by a three-judge panel of the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Justice Department, the losing
party in the case, must decide in the next two weeks whether to seek review
by an 11-member panel of 9th Circuit judges.

Lockyer urged Reno to forgo further review and let a trial judge take the
next step, as the 9th Circuit directed.

The circuit court told U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco
to determine whether there are seriously ill people who would be seriously
harmed if deprived of marijuana. The "public interest" could be served by
recognizing a defense of "medical necessity" when those people break
federal drug laws, the 9th Circuit suggested.

A spokeswoman at the Justice Department said Thursday that Lockyer's letter
had not yet been received. Lockyer spokesman Nathan Barankin said the state
had received no indication of the federal government's plans.

The case arose when Justice Department lawyers asked Breyer to shut down
the 1,500-member Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, one of several such
organizations supplying pot to patients after Proposition 215 became the
law in California. The initiative purported to legalize marijuana for
people with medical authorization to use it.

The Justice Department argued that federal laws amounted to a flat ban on
marijuana, leaving no room for the co-ops to operate legally. Reno's
lawyers persuaded Breyer to issue an injunction against the Oakland co-op
in 1998, but the 9th Circuit last month told him to re-evaluate the situation.

Barankin said Thursday that Lockyer "recognizes there is the fundamental
conflict between federal and state law" but considers the 9th Circuit's
decision "thoughtful and reasonable."

Lockyer said in his letter to Reno: "The voters in my state have endorsed
the medicinal use of marijuana, and the court's decision holding that a
citizen may present evidence that use of marijuana, under certain narrow
conditions, may be a lawful exception to the federal drug laws is
consistent with that expression of their will."

In a related development, the 9th Circuit this week refused to release B.E.
Smith of Trinity County from custody pending his appeal of a conviction in
U.S. District Court in Sacramento for possessing and cultivating marijuana.
Smith was the first individual patient and caregiver prosecuted under
federal drug laws after passage of Proposition 215. The trial judge did not
permit Smith to present a medical-necessity defense.

The circuit court's order, signed by two judges, said his appeal had not
raised any issue that was likely to result in a reversal of his May
conviction or reduction of his sentence. In his motion for release, Smith
had cited the 9th Circuit's Sept. 13 ruling.