OAKLAND CANNABIS CLUB FACES CLOSURE

Operators who provide 2,000 with marijuana for medicinal use say they will
appeal; U.S. marshals told to shut it down Friday night

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative was open for
business Wednesday despite a federal court ruling Tuesday that could close
the club.

"We've gotten a lot of frantic patients calling us and a lot coming in from
great distances to get their medicine because they know we might not be
open by the weekend," said Jeff Jones, the club's executive director.
"Patients are very scared that they are going to have to go back on the
streets."

A federal judge has authorized U.S. marshals to close the state's largest
still-functioning cannabis club Friday evening. Club operators said they
will appeal the ruling.

In a ruling issued Tuesday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Charles
Breyer found the club in contempt of his May ruling that six Northern
California clubs must close because their sale of marijuana violated
federal drug laws.

Oakland and another, much smaller club in Marin County had defied Breyer's
May ruling and continued to sell marijuana. The judge spared the Marin
Alliance for Medical Marijuana on Tuesday from immediate closure. Instead,
he said he will allow a jury trial on the narrow question of whether the
Marin club actually distributed marijuana on the day that it was under a
federal agent's surveillance.

But the judge offered no such reprieve to the Oakland club, despite its
strong backing from the Oakland City Council.

In August, Oakland's City Council tried to protect the Cannabis Buyer's
Cooperative by naming the club's operators "officers" of the city. The move
made Oakland the first city in the nation to become directly involved in
distributing medical marijuana. In an earlier ruling, Breyer rejected the
city's reasoning.

The Oakland club, which claims 2,000 card-carrying members, was open for
business in downtown Oakland on Wednesday. Jones held a news conference on
the steps of City Hall to denounce Breyer's ruling.

The club was allowing patients to stock up Wednesday, Jones said.

"We have a normal limit of one-quarter ounce per day, but we are allowing
people with a statement of need from a physician to alter that today to an
ounce a day," he said.

The Justice Department's reaction to Breyer's ruling was subdued Wednesday.

"I can't say much, except that we were gratified that the judge ruled as he
did," said spokesman Gregory King. "We expect to enforce the court's order.

"We have said in the past that the federal government was taking a measured
approach to ensure that federal law continued to be enforced. We feel that
that is what we tried to do and that is what is being done."

Cannabis clubs sprung up across the state after California voters approved
Proposition 215, the November 1996 initiative allowing patients with a
doctor's recommendation to grow and use marijuana for a variety of
illnesses, including AIDS and cancer. At one point, as many as 28 clubs
were functioning openly, selling marijuana to thousands of people.

Most of the clubs have since closed. Attorney General. Dan Lungren won a
ruling from a state appellate court that Prop. 215 did not legalize medical
marijuana clubs. Lungren shut the largest club, Denis Peron's San Francisco
Cannabis Buyers' Club, earlier this year. Peron had claimed to be serving
8,000 people.

Other clubs --including ones in San Jose and Orange County-- have closed
after their operators were arrested for illegally selling or possessing
marijuana.

In his order issued Tuesday evening, Breyer ruled that there was no
evidence that imminent harm would befall patients denied medical marijuana.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski