OAKLAND BEGINS PROVIDING MARIJUANA TO EASE PAIN

OAKLAND, Calif. - The city of Oakland yesterday became the first city in
the United States to begin distributing marijuana to ease the symptoms of
the chronically ill.

In an action that City Councilman Nate Miley portrayed as an act of moral
courage, the city named operators of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers
Cooperative as officers of the city and said they will distribute marijuana
at their cooperative on the city's behalf.

Miley said the city hopes the action will shield the club from the federal
Justice Department's efforts to shut it down.

The city is counting on the Federal Controlled Substance Act - the same act
the federal government is using in its attempt to close the club - to keep
it open.

A provision of the act says that officers enforcing local drug ordinances
are immune from prosecution for possessing, buying and selling illegal
drugs in the course of their police work.

The provision normally applies to drug agents, protecting them from
prosecution when they are buying or selling drugs in order to make arrests.

Now that the cannabis club's members are "officers" of the city of Oakland,
the city hopes, they too will be considered immune from prosecution. Miley
acknowledged, however, that the city is taking a risk.

"The city could be subject to civil and criminal prosecution" for the
program, Miley said, "but it's a risk we take. . . . There are just moments
that demand that people come forward and do the right thing."

He said the city also will consider ways to distribute marijuana directly
to patients.

"We're aware of the Oakland decision, and we're carefully reviewing it,"
said Gregory King, a spokesman for the Justice Department in Washington.

Oakland, a liberal city where California's former governor, Jerry Brown, is
scheduled to take office as mayor in January, has gone out on a limb
before. The city found itself in the midst of a national debate about race,
education and language in 1996 after the school board voted to officially
recognize black dialect, or "Ebonics," as a separate language.

`A very important element'

Calling the club "a very important element in our community," Miley said
the city "will do everything we can do legally . . . to ensure that the
Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club continues to operate."

Medical-marijuana advocates say the drug eases the symptoms of a wide range
of illnesses and can control nausea and pain suffered by some chronically
ill patients.

California voters passed Proposition 215, the medical-marijuana initiative,
in November 1996. Since then, state Attorney General Dan Lungren and the
Justice Department have sought, in separate court actions, to close
California's marijuana clubs.

More than two dozen clubs, some of which had operated underground, emerged
across the state soon after the law passed.

All but a handful have since closed - some as a result of state and federal
actions, others because their officials were arrested by local police
departments for allegedly selling marijuana to people without a doctor's
recommendation.

In May, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ordered six Northern California
clubs to close, saying that federal law, which prohibits any sale of
marijuana because it is a controlled substance, supersedes Proposition 215.

Three clubs - the Oakland club, one in Marin County and one in Ukiah -
chose to defy Breyer's ruling and continue operating.

Of those three, Oakland is by far the largest, with about 1,800 members.

Heading off a contempt ruling

Seeking to head off a contempt ruling, the Oakland City Council took two
actions last month. It instructed its police department not to arrest city
residents who possessed 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana or less for medical
purposes, several times the amount Lungren has said is allowable.

The council also passed an ordinance establishing the medical-marijuana
distribution system, designating the Oakland cannabis club as the city's
distributor.

At an Oakland city hall news conference yesterday, Oakland Cannabis Club
director Jeff Jones - a 24-year-old who says he became committed to the
cause of providing medical marijuana to patients after watching his father
die a painful death from cancer - and his staff were publicly designated as
officers of the city of Oakland.

Deputy City Manager Mike Nisperos said the club's members all are
designated as officers. He said the designation does not put them on the
city's payroll or provide them with city benefits.

It merely says they are acting on behalf of the city to enforce a city
ordinance.

Attorneys for the cannabis club said they would file a motion today seeking
to dismiss the federal case on the basis of the city's action.

But Matt Ross, a spokesman for Lungren, said Lungren's office has no plan
to move against Oakland or the cannabis club. It is up to the Alameda
district attorney's office to do that, he said.

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Jeff Rubin said Wednesday the
office would not get involved with the Oakland club unless law-enforcement
officials found evidence of crimes being committed there.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)