COURT OF APPEALS URGES JUDGE TO RETHINK MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco raised the possibility
yesterday of reopening shuttered medical marijuana clubs, saying that
``medical necessity'' could exempt seriously ill patients from federal
drug laws.

The court urged U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to consider
amending his injunction last year that closed several Northern
California marijuana clubs, including one in Oakland.

The three-judge panel said Breyer should have taken into account the
needs of patients who could ``suffer imminent harm'' without marijuana
and had no other legal alternative to the drug. Oakland club attorneys
Robert Raich and Gerald Uelmen, a Santa Clara University law
professor, had appealed Breyer's May 1998 decision.

Leaders of the medical marijuana movement hailed yesterday's
ruling.

``It's the greatest news I've had in a long time,'' said Dennis Peron,
whose 9,000-member Cannabis Cultivators Club in San Francisco was shut
down in April 1998 for violating federal law. ``I know Judge Breyer
will see it our way, that in fact marijuana does save lives and that
sometimes you have to break a law to save a life.''

Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers'
Cooperative, agreed, saying that the federal government would have to
``offer some positive alternatives to their current policy of zero
tolerance.''

The Oakland club shut down in October because of Breyer's injunction
but reopened a month later as a center for hemp products.

The Justice Department was reviewing yesterday's ruling and had no
immediate comment as to whether it would appeal.

The court said Breyer denied the Oakland club's appeal of his
injunction ``without weighing or considering the public interest,''
which constituted ``an abuse of discretion.''

The court did not overturn Breyer's injunction barring certain medical
marijuana clubs from dispensing the drug, but it asked Breyer to look
at the case again, taking into account the testimony he has heard from
patients.

The Oakland club ``submitted the declarations of many seriously ill
individuals and their doctors who, despite their very real fears of
criminal prosecution, came forward and attested to the need for
cannabis in order to treat the debilitating and life-threatening
conditions,'' the court said.

In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, the medical
marijuana initiative. Last year, the federal government filed a civil
lawsuit seeking the closure of the Oakland club and five others in
Northern California.

In May 1998, Breyer issued an injunction barring clubs in Oakland,
Santa Cruz, Fairfax, Ukiah and two in San Francisco from distributing
marijuana. Of the six clubs, only those in Fairfax and Ukiah still
sell medical marijuana.