ONE LAST GASP: OAKLAND TRIES A NEW MEDICINAL MARIJUANA STRATEGY

Proposition 215, the seriously flawed medicinal marijuana initiative
approved by voters in 1996, is down to one last legal thread in Oakland.
The initiative attempted to amend state law to let seriously ill patients
smoke marijuana and their "primary caregivers" furnish them with the
otherwise illegal substance.

But courts have ruled, and rightly so, that dispensaries known as buyers'
clubs don't qualify as caregivers and therefore can't provide the pot. And
federal law continues to unambiguously prohibit sale or possession,
regardless of health. Yet the 56 percent of the electorate who voted for
Proposition 215 wish for some way for the seriously ill, after medical
examination and concurrence, to obtain marijuana. Their best bet, albeit a
long shot, is with Oakland.

The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative and city officials seek to exploit
an apparent loophole in the 1970 Federal Controlled Substances Act. That
act provides legal immunity for any "officer" who is enforcing ordinances
relating to controlled substances. This has allowed undercover officers to
buy and sell drugs as part of an investigation. Oakland sees the law as a
way to declare the principals of the city's cannabis club as "officers" of
the city, so that they may legally dispense medicinal marijuana.

Club attorneys are seeking in federal court to dismiss efforts to close
down their club based on the city's attempt at granting them legal
immunity. The city and club, if nothing else, are clever. Yet this strategy
likely will go up in smoke in either one of two fashions -- either before
the courts or before an anti-drug Congress that would quickly close any
loophole if one is found to exist.

Despite its flaws, Proposition 215 has achieved some good.
Government-funded research on medicinal marijuana, research that otherwise
would never have happened, is now under way. And Oakland's cannabis
strategy, although likely to be brief, will help determine if a
government-sanctioned dispensary can act any more responsibly than San
Francisco cannabis clubs, which used to operate more as pot parties than as
the caregivers voters intended.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski