POT CLUBS CAN'T REMAIN OPEN, U.S. JUDGE RULES

Oakland co-op to be shut Friday

A federal judge has taken another step toward closing medical
marijuana clubs, ruling they cannot fight off a federal shutdown by
claiming the drug is essential to relieve patients' pain or save their
lives.

Unless an appeal is successful, Tuesday's ruling by U.S. District
Judge Charles Breyer will allow federal marshals to close the
2,000-member Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative on Friday, said
Rachel Swain, a spokeswoman for the clubs sued by the federal government.

Jeff Jones, the club's director, said he hadn't been able to review
the ruling delivered late Tuesday afternoon and would not comment on
the club's future.

"We don't really know what to do," Jones said. "We don't have plans
solidified as of yet."

A second club, the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax,
was not ordered to close immediately, said its lawyer, William Panzer.
He said Breyer allowed a trial on the narrow question of whether the
club actually distributed marijuana on the day that it was under a
federal agent's surveillance.

But Panzer said Breyer rejected the defenses that would allow the club
to operate, including the claim that enforcing the ban on marijuana
violates patients' constitutional right to relieve excruciating pain.
Panzer said he planned to appeal.

The clubs sprang up around California after passage of Proposition
215, the November 1996 initiative that allows seriously ill patients
to grow and use marijuana for pain relief, with a doctor's
recommendation, without being prosecuted under state law.

Advocates, backed by medical testimony, say only marijuana can make
certain treatments for AIDS and cancer bearable, and ease pain from
glaucoma and other conditions. Federal law declares, however, that
marijuana has no medical use and cannot be administered safely under
medical supervision.

Many of the marijuana clubs have been shut down through the efforts of
Attorney General Dan Lungren, who obtained state court rulings
limiting the scope of Prop. 215, and the Clinton administration's
Justice Department.

The Justice Department originally sued six Northern California clubs,
including the Cannabis Cultivators Club in San Francisco, to enforce
federal laws against marijuana distribution.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady