STATE PANEL NEARS APPROVAL TO DISPENSE MARIJUANA

Distribution For Medical Use May Get Endorsement

A state task force could agree on a plan for legal distribution of medical
marijuana as early as today, a spokesman for the group said Wednesday.

At the least, a legislative bill containing the task force's proposal should
come up within a few weeks. Its passage could reduce a major obstacle to
implementing Proposition 215, the 1996 ballot measure that expressed
California voters' will to allow use of marijuana as medicine.

But whatever the state does, the federal government still holds a trump card
- -- the Controlled Substances Act, which still lists marijuana as a
dangerous, addictive and medically non-useful drug. And federal efforts to
move marijuana to a less restrictive category, or schedule, seem to have
stalled for the moment.

"No matter what we come up with, we're going to be in a dilemma until the
feds reschedule -- that's just a given," said Santa Clara County Assistant
District Attorney Karyn Sinunu, whose boss, District Attorney George
Kennedy, co-chairs California's medical marijuana task force.

"Obviously, all our prayers would be answered if it would be rescheduled,"
she said. "Everyone is in agreement that a pharmacy would be the ideal place
to dispense marijuana, and that could happen once it goes into another
schedule."

But the state can't sit on its hands waiting for Washington to act, said
Nathan Barankin, spokesman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Inaction
while awaiting rescheduling "is an exercise in folly if you're looking for
something to be at least partially implemented before we're too far into the
next century," he said.

"What's happening in the meanwhile is that people are running around making
it up as they go along, and that's no good."

That has been the case since Proposition 215 authorized medical use of
marijuana in 1996 without providing a way for patients to get it legally.
Cannabis buyers clubs sprung up, only to be closed by federal and state
agencies as unauthorized dealers. Local police and prosecutors have had no
guidance for dealing with buyers clubs, farms
and even personal possession, so enforcement has been piecemeal.

But Lockyer and Gov. Gray Davis have taken a much more sympathetic stance
than their Republican predecessors, and Lockyer convened the task force to
develop statewide enforcement standards and a distribution framework.

"We have met four times as a full task force, and there have been working
groups and drafting committees that have met regularly in between," said
Rand Martin, chief of staff to state Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara,
and co-chairman of the task force with Kennedy.

The task force, comprised of everyone from patients to pot growers to police
to physicians, meets again this afternoon in Sacramento to dissect the
latest proposal.

"It is possible that the task force could come to agreement tomorrow on most
if not all provisions of the draft," Martin said Wednesday, adding it's just
as likely task force members will have to go back to their respective
organizations for final approval. "I'm not sure how many of them have
authority to immediately adopt something."

Martin, Sinunu and Barankin wouldn't discuss any specifics of the draft
proposal Wednesday.

Vasconcellos has already introduced a bill to which the task force's plan
will be added. Sinunu said she expects that will happen "within two weeks."

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has introduced a bill to move marijuana to
a less restrictive drug schedule.

Frank's spokesman said Wednesday the bill is lying dormant in a House
committee with no forecast of movement in the foreseeable future.

A rider attached to the federal omnibus budget bill told the Food and Drug
Administration to report to Congress on efforts to enforce federal rules on
marijuana and other Schedule I drugs.

The report was due within 90 days of the bill's signing last October; it
hasn't been delivered yet.