DEFIANT OAKLAND ADOPTS POT CLUB

OAKLAND -- Oakland became the first city in the United States to begin
distributing marijuana for medicinal purposes when it issued a
declaration naming the operators of its local cannabis club "officers of
the city."

"We're out on the frontier," City Councilman Nate Miley said at a news
conference at City Hall, where the club's staff was authorized to act as
representatives of the city. Oakland officials are trying to take
advantage of a section of the Federal Controlled Substance Act that was
originally intended to protect undercover police officers who use or
transport illegal drugs to maintain their cover.

The provision says that any officer of a city who is enforcing drug laws
has immunity from prosecution under those laws.

"Today, Oakland has shown the way," said Gerald Uelmen,Santa Clara
University law professor and a lawyer for the buyers' cooperative. "It's
an example that will be widely emulated in California."

But the attorney general's office said the operators of Oakland Cannabis
Buyers' Cooperative will still be violating state law.

"Our reading of the law and the appellate court's decision found
cannabis clubs cannot operate," said Matt Ross, Attorney General Dan
Lungren's spokesman.

Ross said Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative adopted by
56 percent of voters in 1996, allows just three things: Doctors can
recommend marijuana for ill patients; those patients can grow and use
marijuana; and a primary caregiver can provide marijuana if the patient
is unable to grow it.

"Unfortunately for Oakland, a city is not a primary caregiver," Ross
said.

Cannabis clubs have argued that they should be considered caregivers and
allowed to provide the marijuana to seriously ill patients suffering
from ailments such as AIDS, cancer or glaucoma.

But Lungren, federal prosecutors and the courts have refused to consider
the clubs as caregivers. In recent months they have forced cooperatives
in San Francisco, San Jose and elsewhere to shut down.

Oakland's club and two others -- in Ukiah and Fairfax, Marin County --
continue to operate openly in defiance of the courts, and Proposition
215 advocates said even more operate clandestinely. "The whole issue of
how patients can get marijuana is complicated, but it is heartening to
see people step up to the plate," Dave Fratello, spokesman for Americans
for Medical Rights, the group that got Proposition 215 on the ballot,
said. "Oakland is obviously charging ahead."

The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative had kept its doors open despite
a federal court order in May requiring it to shut down.

Last month, the Oakland City Council adopted an ordinance to make
designated marijuana retailers "officers of the city."

The official designation came on Thursday, and the club's attorneys said
they'll file a motion today seeking to dismiss the federal case against
the cooperative.

"On the basis of this ordinance, the case should be moot and end
entirely," said Robert Raich, an attorney for the buyers' club. "Those
lawyers (federal prosecutors) should go back to Washington, D.C."

Gregory King, U.S. Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment on
the motion, except to say that federal prosecutors are reviewing
Oakland's ordinance.

Bob Weiner, spokesman for federal drug czar Barry McCaffrey, said his
office will also have to study the city's action.

But he said current policy is that "science, not politics" should
determine what's legal -- and thus far, science hasn't determined that
marijuana is medicine.

Michael Vitiello, McGeorge School of Law professor, said Oakland's
ordinance may satisfy the language in the federal Controlled Substances
Act, but may not uphold the intent of the law.

Still, he said the Oakland ordinance has the "potential to be a real
model to solve a difficult problem."

Councilman Miley said the city won't back down, even if it means local
officials have to face prosecution for violating drug laws.

"It's a risk we're willing to take," he said. "If the federal government
wants to prosecute me and my fellow council members, then . . . bring it
on."

Rand Martin, chief of staff for Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara,
predicted Oakland's action would lead to a confrontation between Lungren
and Oakland's elected officials.

"Somewhere, there has to be a showdown like this because this is not a
real policy question because the voters already stated the policy," he
said. "This is a real political issue."

Checked-by: willtoo