CITY WIDENS MARIJUANA LIMIT FOR MEDICINAL USE

LOS ANGELES - Chronic pain and muscle spasms make Irma Carter's weekly
expedition to buy medicine an ordeal. Her medicine of choice is marijuana.

But a new municipal policy, the first of its kind in the nation, promises
to ease the Oakland resident's ordeal--and to inflame a simmering
controversy over the parameters of marijuana use in California.

After a lengthy debate that spilled over into the wee hours of Wednesday,
the Oakland City Council voted to allow its residents to possess 1 1/2
pounds of marijuana for medicinal use. The amount is based on estimates of
what a patient would use in three months, according to Food and Drug
Administration medical research.

The unprecedented action places Oakland squarely in the eye of a political
storm that began after the November 1996 passage of Proposition 215, a
statewide ballot initiative that legalized marijuana use for medicinal
purposes.

The Compassionate Use Act was approved by 56 percent of California's voters
despite opposition from key state and federal drug officials.

In the wake of the measure's passage, the interpretation of what is legal
marijuana use remains as controversial as the debate over marijuana's
medicinal effectiveness.

California's law is in direct conflict with federal drug laws, which make
it a felony to grow marijuana. In retaliation, the federal government has
threatened to punish physicians who recommend marijuana for their patients.

Doctors could face criminal prosecution, the loss of their licenses to
prescribe drugs and exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Last spring, a federal judge ordered six cannabis clubs in Northern
California to shut down for illegally selling the drug.

California law enforcement officials have not looked kindly upon the law
either. It is opposed by Dan Lungren, California's attorney general and the
Republican nominee for governor, who was lampooned by the comic strip
"Doonesbury" over the subject during the 1996 campaign when he ordered a
raid on a San Francisco emporium that sold marijuana to people who claimed
to be sick.

After Proposition 215's victory, Lungren proposed allowing patients to
possess one ounce of marijuana or two plants. But a committee investigating
the issue for the Oakland City Council concluded that the 1 1/2-pound limit
was reasonable.

Oakland City Councilman Nate Miley, who heads the public safety committee
that initiated the new policy, said Lungren's office had told him the
policy would face a legal challenge, a statement denied by a Lungren
spokesman.

Matt Ross, a spokesman for the attorney general, said Lungren opposed the
Oakland policy. "Law enforcement will do the right thing when they stop
someone with 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana," Ross said.

Elihu Harris, who is the city's mayor until Edmund "Jerry" Brown Jr. takes
office in January, opposed the measure, though he said he doesn't oppose
medical marijuana use. The mayor expressed concern that allowing patients
to have such a large amount, more than they might legitimately need, would
enable them to use it for illegal purposes, such as selling it.

Ken Estes, a paraplegic who has used marijuana for 20 years since a
motorcycle accident at age 18, said police have harassed and arrested him
because of his marijuana use.

"Local government is beginning to address this issue so that people who use
medical marijuana can quit being treated as criminals," Estes said.

As a result of the new policy, Oakland police won't arrest anyone with up
to 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana.

They won't confiscate the drug so as long as patients can verify their
status as "qualified patients" within two days, and so long as the quality
of the cannabis in their possession meets the city's standards.

Carter, the pain patient, said the new policy will allow her to stop
feeling like a criminal. "It means so much to me and to people like me to
not be afraid anymore," she said.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)