JUDGE REJECTS MARIJUANA CLUBS' DEFENSES

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Medical marijuana clubs cannot fight off a
federal shutdown by claiming the drug is necessary to relieve
patients' pain or save their lives, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer was reported by
representatives of marijuana clubs in Oakland and Marin County,
targets of a Clinton administration lawsuit seeking to close them for
violations of federal laws against marijuana distribution.

Breyer's order allows federal marshals to close the 2,000-member
Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative on Friday, said Rachel Swain, a
spokeswoman for the clubs.

William Panzer, lawyer for the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in
the city of Fairfax, said the judge did not order that club closed,
but allowed a trial on the narrow question of whether it 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.

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. Longstanding federal law declares,
however, that marijuana has no medical use and cannot be administered
safely under medical supervision.

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.

But many of the clubs have been shut down through the efforts of
Attorney General Dan Lungren, who obtained state court rulings
limiting the scope of Proposition 215, and the Clinton
administration's Justice Department, which sued six clubs to enforce
federal laws against marijuana distribution.

Breyer issued an injunction in May prohibiting the six Northern
California clubs from distributing marijuana while the government's
suit was pending. His latest ruling involved the government's motion
to hold the two surviving clubs in contempt of court and require their
immediate closure for violating the injunction.

Breyer concluded he had no authority to decide whether the ban on
marijuana was irrational, Panzer said, reading from the ruling. He
said the judge found that the only legal way to challenge the ban was
to ask the government to lift it, wait for a denial and then go to a
federal appeals court.

The government's position is "absurd, considering that marijuana is
one of the safest substances known to mankind," Panzer said. He said
Congress should not be able to pass a law that prevents judges from
deciding whether a prohibition of a medical treatment is rational.

The clubs also argued that administering marijuana was justified by
"medical necessity," the legal doctrine that allows someone to violate
a law in certain narrow circumstances when it is the only way to
prevent a more serious harm.

But Panzer said Breyer effectively rejected that defense by requiring
the clubs to show that each patient had no alternative, rather than
allowing the clubs to argue to a jury that their screening procedures
admitted only patients who needed marijuana.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry