OAKLAND POT CLUB GETS OK TO STAY OPEN TILL MONDAY

U.S. judge grants stay of court order to shut permanently

OAKLAND -- The Oakland Cannabis Buyers Collective received a temporary
reprieve Friday when a federal judge granted a stay to keep the medical pot
distributor open through Monday.

Just three days earlier, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer had ordered the
club -- made up of 2,200 ailing individuals who have been prescribed
marijuana by their doctors -- to be inventoried and padlocked and employees
evicted. Lawyers representing the cooperative filed an appeal Thursday
which may be heard Monday.

Cannabis Buyers Cooperative employees were packing up and readying to close
when Executive Director Jeff Jones got word of the stay Friday.

"We had plans to go along with the order (to shut down) ..... we are not
trying to circumvent the law here," Jones said.

Jones noted that while Breyer ruled against the center Tuesday, he has
shown some degree of sympathy toward the medical marijuana distributor in
the past.

"He would have shut us down a long time ago had he not had some compassion
..... but he still has to follow the law," Jones said.

Cooperative members arriving to pick up their marijuana Friday were
concerned about the possibility of the center closing for good.

"Only through this clinic am I able to function and take care of my
family," said Cherie Haik, of Concord.

Haik, who has fibromyalgia, which causes severe aches and pains, said that
on doctor's orders she has been coming to the clinic for the past few
months. The mother of two said her doctor previously prescribed narcotics,
but they made her feel too "doped up" to do simple household chores.

Richard Purington, an Oakland resident diagnosed with AIDS 18 months ago,
said he would try to find marijuana through friends if the cooperative were
to close.

"Without it (pot) I have no appetite, and I get nauseated a lot," Purington
said.

On Tuesday, Breyer rejected the group's arguments that it had a medical
necessity to sell marijuana and found the cooperative in contempt of a May
injunction prohibiting the club from distributing pot. The cooperative,
along with five similar groups in Northern California, opened in 1996 after
state voters approved Proposition 215, allowing for the sale and
distribution of medical marijuana.

Oakland City Councilman Nate Miley -- who, in August, guided the passage of
a local ordinance to deputize cooperative employees as "officers of the
city" -- has encouraged the city to declare a state of emergency in the
event of a closure. The City Council will vote on the proposal Tuesday. "It
(the state of emergency) will not prevent the closing, but it might give
the judges something more to think about when considering the appeal," said
Miley aide Joe DeVries.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson