WITH POT CLUB SHUT, OAKLAND DECLARES AN EMERGENCY

City Council's 5-4 vote supports medical marijuana

OAKLAND - The Oakland City Council, in a symbolic gesture, declared a public
health emergency following the court-ordered closing of a medical marijuana
club there.

With Tuesday night's council vote, Oakland became the first city in the
country to declare a state of emergency resulting from the loss of a supply
of medical marijuana.

The 5-4 vote followed Monday's action by federal marshals to close the
Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative, one of the largest and most
tightly-run medical marijuana distributors in the state. The shutdown left
local medical marijuana users stranded indefinitely without a supply of
marijuana.

City officials in San Francisco and Berkeley in the past have declared
medical emergencies to allow the distribution of intravenous needles to drug
users to curb the spread of HIV. But no other city has passed such a measure
to allow use of marijuana for medical reasons.

Councilman Nate Miley, who sponsored Monday's declaration, compared the
hazards of closing the club to not providing a needle-exchange program. "We
still have an AIDS epidemic and medical marijuana has been proven to help
relieve some of the suffering from this and other illnesses," Miley said.
Miley emphasized that Oakland was taking the lead on an issue already
decided by California voters with the passage of Proposition 215, which
allowed patients and their caregivers to possess and grow marijuana without
prosecution under California law, if recommended by a doctor to relieve the
pain from AIDS or cancer treatment, glaucoma or other conditions.

"The issue is, does the will of the people supersede the federal
government," Miley said. "Why is the federal government interfering with the
will of the people?"

Miley and other councilmembers who voted for the declaration admitted that
there would be no immediate impact on the effort to supply sick people with
marijuana.

"I want to make clear that what we are talking about tonight is not that the
city will step into the shoes of the cooperative and distribute marijuana .
. .8F," said Councilman John Russo, who voted for the legislation.

Dissenting councilmembers expressed concern that the suffering of the small
number of cooperative members - currently numbered at 2,200 - did not
constitute an emergency as defined by law. "From what I understand, only
one-half of the members of this club are from Oakland and only one-third of
them have AIDS," said Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente. "I represent 400,000
people in this city and this does not effect most of them."

Robert Raich, an attorney representing the cooperative said the City
Council's statement, while symbolic, could help the effort provide medical
marijuana for those who need it but do not want to turn to street dealers or
attempt to grow it at home. "It (the declaration) will allow the City
Council to hear issues related to medical marijuana in an expedited manner;
it will help stimulate creative thinking around the issue and what the
alternatives might be," he said. The Associated Press contributed to this
report.

Checked-by: Don Beck