OAKLAND MEDICAL POT LIMIT: 1 POUNDS

Unanimous Council Vote For State's Most Permissive Rules

Unanimously and without discussion, the Oakland City Council has
established the state's most permissive medical marijuana guidelines.

Henceforth, medical marijuana users in Oakland may hold a stash of 1 pounds
- -- equivalent to 30 outdoor flowering plants or 48 indoor plants -- without
fear of arrest.

For the time being.

What appears to be the definitive test case for California's medical
marijuana law -- enacted in 1996 as Proposition 215 -- is brewing in
federal court in San Francisco. Among the defendants is the Cannabis Buyers
Cooperative of Oakland, which helped develop the guidelines.

At issue is a preliminary injunction issued in May by U.S. District Judge
Charles Breyer ordering six Bay Area cannabis clubs to shut down. Breyer
said that federal law supersedes Prop. 215.

On Wednesday, just hours after the Oakland City Council promulgated its new
guidelines, the U.S. Attorney's office filed a motion asking that U.S.
marshals be authorized to close down the Oakland club as well as others in
Marin and Mendocino counties.

The government also filed motions ordering the clubs to show cause why they
should not be held in contempt of the Breyer injunction. A hearing on the
motions is scheduled on Aug. 14.

Oakland's guidelines, developed by a committee of police, patients,
physicians and Oakland's legal staff as well as the buyers cooperative, far
exceed the limit set by Attorney General Dan Lungren.

As far as Lungren is concerned, the limit is two plants or an ounce of
marijuana which, by his calculations, is equivalent to a 30-day supply.

"Those guidelines have been in effect since December 1966, and no one --
sheriffs, police departments, DAs -- has had any problem with them," said
Lungren's spokesman Matt Ross. As for the Oakland guidelines, "we hope that
law enforcement will do the right thing when stopping an individual with a
pound and a half of marijuana," he said.

Jeff Jones, executive director of the 1,700-member Cannabis Buyers
Cooperative, said the council's passage of the guidelines vetted by its
Public Health and Safety Committee kept the city "on the leading edge of
this issue."

Jones noted that Oakland modeled its guidelines after those of an ongoing
federal experiment, the Compassionate Investigative New Drug Program. That
program rations medical marijuana users to half a pound a month or about 10
cigarettes per day. Just eight patients are currently participating in the
federal program, Jones said.

The guidelines are "already being implemented by the police department,
which is working with us to make sure these medical patients aren't being
harassed," Jones said. "Police don't want to arrest patients who are
legitimately using marijuana," and are able to provide documentary proof
that they are, Jones said. But under the guidelines "somebody possessing
marijuana for sale or for personal use that's not medical will be cited and
arrested."

1998 San Francisco Examiner