SERIOUS SIDE-EFFECTS OF POT CLUB CLOSURE

ANDY GOLDBERG of Deutsche Presse-Agentur in Oakland, California
Six-year-old Joy Simmons cannot walk, sit or even speak more than three
words, but she is well on her way to becoming a criminal.

The list of her ailments reads like a paediatrician's nightmare - cerebral
palsy, epilepsy, spastic quadriplegia and cortical blindness - and the
conventional drugs she took until 1996 just made things worse.

Now her father gives her a mixture of milk and marijuana, supplied by
medical marijuana activists. He says the improvement has been incredible.

"Without it she would have one seizure after another. It's frightening
because she could choke to death. But with the marijuana milk that doesn't
happen," says Scott Simmons.

"And do you know what the side effect is? She laughs."

In a 1996 state of California proposition, 56 per cent of voters supported
a proposal allowing the use of marijuana for a variety of medical
conditions.

But with similar propositions coming up for the vote in six other states on
November 3, federal authorities are trying their best to have the
medical-marijuana movement declared unconstitutional and closed down. The
US Department of Justice claims that no-one has the right to use marijuana
for any reason because it is listed as a Class I drug.

The official position argued in courts is that it has no medical value,
despite recent research showing it as a more effective and less harmful
painkiller than opiates. The testimony of thousands of seriously ill
patients, that marijuana has significantly eased their suffering, is also
on record.

What effect the crackdown will have on voters in Alaska, Washington,
Oregon, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona is still unclear, though
medical-marijuana activists predict the propositions will pass in at least
two states.

The crackdown last week on California's biggest "pot club", the Oakland
Cannabis Buyer's Co-operative, left patients sad, defiant and worried.

The Oakland club closed its doors following a court ruling that it was
unconstitutional, leaving its 2,200 members without a regular supply of
their preferred medicine.

Most used the drug to combat the debilitating effects of AIDS, cancer or
glaucoma.

They said they would continue to take it even if it meant getting their
"grass" on the streets.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson