STATE LEADERS STRUGGLE TO SEPARATE MEDICAL POT USERS FROM THE ILLEGAL DRUG
WORLD

PETALUMA - When two armed robbers burst into a Petaluma home waving a
semiautomatic weapon last weekend, it was a case of the criminal underworld
colliding with the latest medical trend.

The robbers, who held at gunpoint five occupants of the house, including
two children, weren't seeking jewels or cash or home electronics.

What they wanted was marijuana - a garden with about 50 lush plants that
police say were being grown for medical use.

While no one was injured, frustrated neighbors - and law enforcement
officials throughout the state - say the robbery illustrates the problems
of carrying out the vaguely worded medicinal marijuana law approved by
California voters in 1996.

With hundreds of people in California claiming to be growing and possessing
marijuana for medicinal purposes, state leaders are struggling to separate
the needs of the critically ill from the dangers of the illegal drug world.

"Something like this (robbery) has been expected," said Bill Zimmerman of
Americans for Medical Rights, which sponsored Proposition 215, the medical
marijuana measure that passed by a 55 percent margin. "To me, it
underscores the need for a state-sanctioned system of distributing
marijuana to patients. That way you don't have people jeopardizing their
safety by growing marijuana in their basements."

Voters made it clear they want suffering patients to have access to
marijuana - reputed to have a long list of medicinal benefits, from
relieving symptoms of cancer and AIDs to preventing seasickness. The
measure, however, offered little direction as to how the law should be
enforced. And it couldn't override federal law, which deems all marijuana
illegal.

Sorting Legit Users Difficult

Now police say they are having trouble sorting out which marijuana growers
and users are legitimate and which aren't. And, even in cases where it is
proved that a person has a bona fide doctor's recommendation, police
complain there are no statewide guidelines on such questions as how much of
the substance can be grown in a dense residential neighborhood and how to
protect the super-valuable crop from criminal pot raiders.

On the flip side, advocates of medical marijuana complain that legitimate
users are still being arrested and prosecuted in some counties for
possessing small quantities.

"There is a lot of confusion at the local level," said Attorney General
Bill Lockyer, who convened a medical marijuana task force early this year,
which has made a series of recommendations on what the state's enforcement
policy should be. "The initiative was written in such a vague way that it's
hard for local prosecutors to figure out how to enforce it."

Lockyer and many medical marijuana advocates support a bill by Sen. John
Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, that would create a voluntary state registration
system for medical marijuana users and would make the state department of
public health set limits on how much marijuana a patient or caregiver could
possess or grow.

But nearly everyone involved in the debate agrees the best solution would
be to have the federal government approve marijuana as a medicine. Then it
could be prescribed by doctors, produced by legitimate firms and dispensed
through pharmacies.

While the Aug. 20 home invasion might have been the state's first
strong-arm medical marijuana robbery, law enforcement officials say it
illustrates the chaos that they are facing over how to handle the drug.

The East Petaluma marijuana grower, 49-year-old Robert Schmidt, has a
recommendation from his doctor, recognized by police, to use marijuana to
treat his chronic weight loss and respiratory problems. In addition, he
says, he has formed a nonprofit that is acting as a caregiver to dozens of
other patients - suffering from ailments ranging from AIDS to alcoholism -
by growing marijuana in his backyard greenhouse and providing it in
exchange for donations.

Neighbors worried, frightened But his neighbors along a street of closely
spaced tract homes say that while they support the concept of medicinal
marijuana, they are worried about the intruders and the traffic Schmidt's
organization draws to their neighborhood. Police say they have been called
twice before to deal with prowlers trying to steal Schmidt's plants.

"We've got people jumping fences to get to the marijuana, (clients) going
in and out of his house 24 hours a day and the dogs (that Schmidt uses to
protect the house) barking day and night," said neighbor Michelle Norton,
one of seven residents of the street who complained about the situation in
interviews with The Examiner. "If he's going to be doing this, he shouldn't
be endangering the neighborhood."

Police, who have worked with the neighbors and Schmidt for several years
trying to smooth out problems, say they don't know what to do. They are
following a Sonoma County law enforcement policy, which allows patients
with a doctor's approval - or their appointed caregivers - to possess or
grow up to 1 pound a year per patient.

"I don't want to go out there and take someone's marijuana that they are
using as medicine - that's like confiscating someone's heart medicine,"
said Petaluma police Inspector Detective David Cormier. "At the same time,
as long as (medical marijuana is being grown) in a residential neighborhood
with a high population of young children, there's going to be a security
issue for the whole neighborhood."

He said police are looking into whether Schmidt's garden should be declared
a nuisance.

Standing among the 7-foot-tall marijuana plants in the enclosed patio
garden behind his house, Schmidt said he wanted to apologize to his
neighbors and that he is planning on moving his nonprofit, named Genesis
1:29, to a nonresidential area soon.

The name is inspired by this biblical passage: "For I have given you every
herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree,
in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food."

Schmidt wouldn't specify how many patients his organization provides
marijuana for, but said there are dozens - all referred to him by doctors
and then screened to make sure that they have long-term illnesses, he said.
The organization also supplies marijuana to seven hospices working with
dying patients, he said.

"If they call up here and need marijuana for a dying patient, we deliver,
no questions asked," he said.

Reformed Drug Smuggler

Before 1978, he acknowledged, he made his living as an international drug
smuggler - a career he said landed him two years in federal prison. But
Schmidt said he has reformed his life and his goal is to remove marijuana
from the grasp of the black market and find legitimate ways to get it to
sick people who need it.

He has registered the nonprofit with the state, obtained a city business
license, drafted a mission statement, produced brochures and business cards
and said he is even listing Genesis 1:29 in the Yellow Pages as a hospice.

Police say they have investigated the marijuana distribution activities at
the house in response to the neighbors' complaints. Cormier said when
police stopped people leaving the house, all they found were individuals -
all with valid doctors' recommendations - carrying small quantities of
marijuana.

"We've done all the paperwork," Schmidt said. "We've tried to do everything
right - then this (robbery) happened."

On the night of Aug. 20, Schmidt said, two men walked into his house
through an unlocked door and pointed a semiautomatic handgun in his face.
One of the men herded the five occupants of the house, including two
visiting children ages 9 and 10, into a room and held them at gunpoint,
according to police reports. They cut the phone lines so no one could call
for help and proceeded to pull up about 12 marijuana plants. They then ran
out of the house with the plants.

Pair Charged In Robbery

Police later apprehended Richard James McLean, 21, and David Delasantos,
22. They have been charged with robbery, burglary, false imprisonment and
destroying phone lines.

Schmidt already had guard dogs, motion sensors with spotlights and a net to
keep intruders out of his yard. But he said he has removed some of the most
valuable plants from his home since the robbery and is storing them elsewhere.

"A criminal has created this problem," he said. "The marijuana is not the
issue. The home-invasion robbery is the issue. I'm asking for some
compassion and understanding, and some consideration for rights that have
already been established."

But the neighbors are still angry and worried - especially since the gun
used in the robbery hasn't been found and is believed to be somewhere in
their neighborhood.

"We'd like to move, but we can't afford it," said Mike Norman, who lives
next door to Schmidt and is the fiance of Michelle Norton.

Throughout Northern California, where thousands of pounds of illicit
marijuana are grown every year, police say thieves who refer to themselves
as "patch pirates" have made an occupation out of stealing the drug, which
can sell for $5,000 a pound on the black market. "Security for controlled
substances is a problem, whether you're talking about a pharmacy or a crack
house," said Karyn Sinunu, a deputy district attorney in Santa Clara
County, who sat on Lockyer's task force. "One of the reasons the government
is concerned about controlling marijuana is that people kill each other
over this stuff."