JUDGE GRANTS MEDICAL POT CLUB THREE-DAY REPRIEVE

Co-Op Has Until 5 P.M. Monday To Keep Doors Open To Members

OAKLAND - Just hours before U.S. Marshals were to come knocking Friday, a
federal judge granted Oakland's embattled medical marijuana club a three-day
reprieve from a court-ordered shutdown.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer granted a stay that allows the
Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative to stay open until 5 p.m. Monday, giving
attorneys time to appeal the case to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Breyer had ordered the club closed at 5 p.m. Friday, for violating this
previous order to stop distributing marijuana. Club attorneys submitted an
appeal and Breyer gave the club a brief stay.

Cooperative staff had been preparing to close down and leave peacefully
early Friday afternoon, to be out of the way when marshals arrived to
inventory marijuana supplies and padlock the doors.

"I'm delighted," said Jeff Jones, the cooperative's executive director,
shortly after the stay was granted. " feel (Breyer) is giving the
alternative to pursue our case in court."

The law-key club on Broadway in downtown Oakland is the largest such
dispensary in the state, and was opened after the passage of California's
medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215.

About 2,200 members, suffering from illnesses and physical disabilities,
obtain marijuana there in the form of starter plants, dried bulk form or
baked into cookies or brownies.

Despite efforts to keep a low profile, the Oakland club has been thrust into
the limelight because it has remained open while other facilities, such as
the San Francisco Cannabis Club, have been shuttered after intensive efforts
by state Attorney General Dan Lungren.

Following on the heels of Breyer's temporary stay of a shutdown order,
attorneys for the club quickly filed an appeal with the higher court.

Attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department sought an injunction in January
to close club, arguing it is a violation of federal law to distribute
marijuana, defined as an illegal controlled substance in the same category
as heroin or cocaine.

But attorney Robert Raich, representing the club, said Breyer had
misinterpreted federal law when he issued the shutdown order earlier
Tuesday.

"We feel the judge missed some important facts and misapplied the law,"
Raich said.

The club, Raich argues, is not in violation of federal controlled substances
acts and imminent harm will come to patients if they are not able to obtain
marijuana.

"It is not at all an exaggeration that people would die as a result of
this," Raich said.

Several patients, in declarations to the court, have stated that cutting off
their marijuana supply would be a "death sentence."

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst