CITY TAKES NOVEL APPROACH TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA (Oakland)

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The city of Oakland on Thursday 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 U.S.
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 policework.

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 directly distribute marijuana.

``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.

Calling the club ``a very important element in our community,'' Miley said
that 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.

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 Court 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 and one in Ukiah -- chose to
defy Breyer's ruling and continue operating. Of those three, Oakland is by
far the largest, with some 1,800 members.

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 1.5 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.

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At an Oakland city hall news conference Thursday, Oakland Cannabis Club
director Jeff Jones -- a clean-cut 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 that 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 that they
are acting on behalf of the city to enforce a city ordinance.

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

``This designation will permit the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative
staff to distribute medical cannabis within federal law,'' said Gerald
Uelmen, a University of Santa Clara law professor who helped represent O.J.
Simpson in his criminal case. Uelmen was joined by prominent criminal
defense lawyer James Brosnahan.

Uelmen said the 1970 Federal Controlled Substances Act contains a provision
saying any officer of a city who is enforcing an ordinance on controlled
substances is immune from liability for civil or criminal prosecution under
the act.

The provision normally applies to drug agents, protecting them from
prosecution when they are buying or selling drugs in order to make arrests.
But Uelmen insisted that its wording is broad, and said he is confident
that the courts will rule in Oakland's favor.

But a spokesman for Lungren expressed skepticism at the attorneys' legal
reasoning, saying he thought Oakland's actions are illegal under state and
federal law.

But Ross 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.

(c) 1998, Los Angeles Times

Checked-by: Pat Dolan