COURT RULES FOR DISTRIBUTION OF CANNABIS IN MEDICAL CENTERS

Facilities Must Prove Drug Is Needed By Patients

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court created a potentially major opening
in federal drug laws Monday, ruling that medical marijuana centers may be
allowed to distribute cannabis if they can prove that the drug is needed to
protect patients against imminent medical harm.

In its decision, the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals said that a federal judge should have considered patients' medical
needs for marijuana when he ordered a cannabis club in Oakland last year to
stop distributing the drug.

The ruling "means that the federal law is not an absolute barrier to
distribution of marijuana," said Santa Clara University law professor Gerald
F. Uelmen, who helped represent the Oakland center. "It requires courts to
exercise discretion to look at the circumstances of individual patients and
weigh that against the public interest."

The court did not overturn U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer's injunction
against the club, but said he must consider the case again, taking into
account evidence that some patients need cannabis to treat debilitating and
life-threatening conditions.

The decision could lead to the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative and
others being allowed to distribute marijuana to some severely ill patients,
said Robert Raich, another attorney for the center.

"It may provide a method under federal law in which medical patients, some
medical patients, can be provided with the medical cannabis they need ...
legally," the Oakland attorney said.

California voters in November 1996 approved Proposition 215, which permitted
seriously ill patients to obtain and use marijuana with their doctors'
recommendations without being prosecuted under state law.

The Clinton administration, however, sued six Northern California clubs on
the grounds that a federal ban on marijuana distribution prevails over the
state initiative.

Oakland's center stopped distributing marijuana, three clubs closed and two
others are still open and being monitored by federal authorities.

The court ruling comes in the wake of the collapse of an effort by lawmakers
in Sacramento to make Proposition 215 more workable by setting up a
statewide registry of medical marijuana users.

Faced with opposition from law enforcement and a likely veto from Gov. Gray
Davis, state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) abandoned his efforts,
at least for the time being, to win legislative approval of a registry. The
plan had been recommended by a special task force of law enforcement
officials and medical marijuana advocates put together by Attorney General
Bill Lockyer in January.

In the federal court case, federal attorneys had no immediate comment Monday
on whether they will appeal the decision of the 9th Circuit panel. Without
an appeal, the case would return to Judge Breyer in San Francisco, who would
have to reconsider his injunction against the Oakland center after reviewing
evidence that marijuana is a necessity for some patients.