MEDICAL-POT ACTIVIST MORE HOPEFUL

Anna Boyce Gets Some Respect From The New Sheriff's Right Hand Man.

Once, the squat concrete building was the lair of her nemesis. The
bunker where he labored for her defeat.

So it was with curiosity, and a little irony, that Anna Boyce breezed
into the stark Sheriff's Department building Thursday to discuss
something near and dear to her heart - how to implement California's
medicinal marijuana law, which she helped write and labored to pass in
1996.

"We're going to work very well together," Boyce said after her meeting
with Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo, who is the new sheriff's
right-hand man.

It was a sweet victory in and of itself: The old sheriff, Brad Gates,
spearheaded the statewide opposition to the initiative, and would not
meet with activists after it passed. The new sheriff, Mike Carona,
promised to find a way to enforce the law.

"It was very eye-opening for all concerned," said Jaramillo. "These
are important matters in people's lives, and we in law enforcement
need to be responsive to them."

Big problems remain, but Boyce is hopeful.

"We left there smiling, feeling very secure that they will be
listening to all sides," Boyce said.

Boyce is not just another medicinal-marijuana activist. She's a
grandmother and registered nurse who stumbled upon her cause in 1995,
when husband J.J. was dying of cancer. She was told that marijuana
would ease his pain and stimulate his appetite and finally persuaded
him to try it - but felt like a criminal.

Boyce hoped the new law would ensure that never happened again - but
it hasn't worked out that way. California's law is in direct
opposition with federal drug law; and while the initiative makes it
legal for patients with a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana,
the question of how they actually get it is still a thorny one.

"When we wrote this it never occurred to us that there would be
distribution problems," she said. "We always assumed there would be
centers where people would go for cannabis, because a few already
existed. We assumed - that's the icky part."

Orange County set up such a center - and now one director is in jail
for six years for selling and transporting marijuana, and a
co-director is heading to trial on similar charges.

Boyce plans to work with the Legislature and federal officials to
fine-tune the law.