CALIFORNIA COP DELIVERS "POT CARDS" TO TOWN'S MEDICINAL MARIJUANA USERS

ARCATA, Calif. - Arcata's police chief walked into the house and was
escorted upstairs to a bedroom filled with marijuana plants and enough
smokable pot to fill a grocery bag.

Instead of reaching for his gun or a search warrant, Mel Brown offered
a handshake.

"I used to leave places like that with plants and prisoners," Brown
said on the way out of Jason Browne's marijuana garden. "But here, law
enforcement is holding out the olive branch to people who smoke
medical marijuana."

Tucked between groves of towering redwoods and misty coastal beaches
in far Northern California, Arcata, population 16,000, is getting
considerable attention for its response to Proposition 215, the 1996
voter initiative that allows people to grow and use marijuana for
medicinal purposes.

Brown personally issues photo identification cards bearing his
signature to people who register as medical marijuana patients, after
confirming that they have a doctor's recommendation.

So far, he has issued about 100 of the "stay out of jail" cards.
Officers have been instructed not to arrest pot growers or smokers who
carry the ID.

Brown said he is not concerned about trouble from Attorney General
Janet Reno, who personally reminded state Attorney General Bill
Lockyer last month that Proposition 215 runs counter to federal law.

"Quite frankly, I don't see Janet Reno coming to Arcata and arresting
somebody or having her people arrest somebody," he said.

As a precaution, however, Brown keeps no record of who applies for an
ID and doesn't keep track of those who use a card.

One of the card holders is Browne, who smokes pot to relieve his back
pain and invited the chief to survey his crop. During the visit, the
chief listened attentively while the grower spoke of the potency of
his next harvest, and sighed sympathetically when Browne shook some
stalks and unleashed a swarm of marijuana-munching bugs.

"Jason and I were both very cautious when the program first started,"
said Brown, 53. "I didn't want to be associated with black market drug
dealers and he didn't want to be associated with someone who was going
to stab him in the back. But time passed and we got over the
stereotypes."

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department won a court order to shut down
most of the state's cannabis clubs for violating federal laws against
marijuana distribution.

Lockyer, who is seeking a compromise that will avoid the wrath of
federal officials, has formed a task force of law enforcement officers
and medical marijuana advocates to study the issue.

"What makes Arcata's program work is the fact that law enforcement and
the medical community are involved," said Nathan Barankin, Lockyer's
spokesman. "The task force has been asked to look at Arcata as a model
and perhaps make some recommendations on whether what works for Arcata
works for Los Angeles and other larger communities."

Arcata works for officials in Mendocino County, where District
Attorney Norman Vroman plans to announce a similar ID card system next
month. "We thought it was very successful and we intend to plagiarize
as much of it as we can," Vroman said.

Such praise from law enforcement is a dramatic change for the Emerald
Triangle, the region in Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties where
pot is the largest cash crop and drug-busting teams often raided
clandestine marijuana patches hidden in the forests.

Pot is so common here that the pungent scent of marijuana smoke hovers
outside bars, and locals practice the "4:20" toke time each afternoon,
much as people take tea in England. (Smokers say 4-20 also is police
code for a marijuana offense.)

Brown, who serves on Lockyer's task force, is proud of the official
support, but says his program is simply a response to Arcata's needs.

"The chief concern was being able to afford the people in my community
the rights they were given," he said