MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISTRIBUTION IMPERFECT

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. - Ryan Landers didn't plan on being a farmer.
Then again, he never planned on getting AIDS and needing marijuana to
stay hungry enough to keep him from wasting away.

He used to buy pot at the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative. But
that club, like many that opened after a 1996 medical marijuana
initiative passed, has been shut down by federal court order.

Now many club members, including Landers, increasingly are forced to
seek out small, low-profile groups and buy from street dealers. Dozens
have been arrested for having plants. Short of a federal change of
heart allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana, co-ops that grow pot to
give or sell to patients may be their best hope.

For Landers, that means traveling 100 miles to this tiny, rural town
in the wine county about 90 miles north of San Francisco to buy the
pot that will ease his nausea. Here, Proposition 215 author Dennis
Peron and members of his two defunct San Francisco pot clubs grow
marijuana. This summer, Peron plans to begin delivering plants to
thousands of San Francisco patients who will pay for them at cost.

``This was really horrible when the clubs shut down,'' Landers said.
``(People) don't know where to get plants and seeds.

``It's been more than two years. People should be growing pot. They
shouldn't be scared to.''

After the medical marijuana law passed, allowing the cultivation and
use of marijuana for medical purposes, the number of clubs in
California peaked at around 30, said Dave Fratello, one of the authors
of the bill. Similar medical marijuana measures later passed in five
other states and the District of Columbia.

But in California, then-Attorney General Dan Lungren oversaw a series
of state-initiated efforts that closed about two-thirds of the
clubs, most in Northern California. Federal raids and court rulings
also contributed to the shutdowns, although some advocates say that
for every club that has closed, at least another has opened -- albeit
quietly -- in its place.

State officials and medical marijuana advocates say a national
Institutes of Medicine review scheduled for release next month will be
critical in getting federal officials to consider reclassifying
marijuana as a less-dangerous drug or allowing doctors to prescribe
pot. The 18-month review of the health effects and medical treatment
benefits of marijuana was ordered by drug czar Barry McCaffrey.

``The cannabis clubs were a great stopgap measure ... but it wasn't a
solution,'' said Scott Imler, director of the Los Angeles Cannabis
Resource Center in West Hollywood. The center is one of two well-known
pot clubs in Southern California and has 1,100 members from
Bakersfield to Palm Springs.

Imler and others are optimistic that things will change with a new
governor and attorney general in office and new district attorneys and
sheriffs in communities that have been hostile to distribution efforts.

``The main problem we've had is lack of guidance to law enforcement,''
said Jason Browne, a trustee of the Humboldt Cannabis Center in
Arcata. ``Everyone is waiting for someone else to do something and
meanwhile the patients are at risk.''

Brian Steel, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, would not
comment on why smaller co-ops have survived while the larger groups
were shut down.

``The Department of Justice is committed to following the law that
Congress has passed, and to that end, Congress has said the use or
distribution of marijuana is illegal,'' he said. ``Consistent with
that, that's what we're going to do.''

Advocates say the clubs were safe and convenient.

``I like the clubs better. There's no hassle, no pressure. You get
what you need and leave,'' said Chris Ward, 39, who bought pot at the
Oakland club to ease the effects of chemotherapy. Now he plans to go
to a new Berkeley co-op, about 200 miles south of his home in Oak Run.

Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, hasn't said whether he'll support
proposed legislation to authorize $1 million annually to study medical
marijuana or a plan to specify or standardize the enforcement of
Proposition 215.

``I believe good science should resolve this issue,'' Davis has
said.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer, also a Democrat, said he voted for the
medical marijuana law and agrees more guidance is needed. His mother
and sister both died of leukemia.

``There are omissions and gaps and ambiguities in the initial statute
that would benefit from clarification,'' Lockyer said. ``It's unclear
exactly who can be a caretaker and exactly what the system is for
setting up a dispensary and clinic.''

Patients can still get pot at operations in San Francisco, West
Hollywood, San Diego, Fairfax, Sonoma County, Ukiah, Arcata, Berkeley
and Hayward. Peron's farm was twice raided by Drug Enforcement Agency
officials, who confiscated hundreds of plants but made no arrests.

``Unless the federal government changes its policy or adopts a
noninvasive role, the California statute scheme can never be legally
implemented,'' Lockyer said.

``If our law were tighter and there was more of a clinic -- not cult
structure to the statute -- that might be partially persuasive to the
federal government if they see there is a tight regulatory system.''