CITY TRIES TO CLEAR AIR OVER POT USE: BUT COUNCIL SPLIT ON HANDLING PROP. 215

Sacramento city officials want to help part the haze surrounding the
state's controversial medicinal marijuana law, Proposition 215.

But the key City Hall players are headed in opposite directions -- one
wants to restrict medicinal marijuana use, but two others say the city
should consider helping to get it into more patients' hands.

Councilman Robbie Waters instructed the city attorney Tuesday to draw up a
law making it illegal for patients to smoke medicinal marijuana in public.
The county already has a ban, which includes fines up to $1,000 and six
months in jail, for patients caught smoking in public.

Waters' request stems from what he says is a loophole in city and state
laws that allow marijuana to be smoked for medicinal purposes outdoors in
public.

Last year, AIDS patient Ryan Landers was arrested on the K Street Mall for
smoking marijuana at an outdoor restaurant, but the District Attorney's
Office dropped the charges. Prosecutors said Landers would have prevailed
at trial since he legally was allowed to smoke marijuana under Proposition
215, which California voters passed in 1996.

Landers, who suffers from nausea, said he needs marijuana to settle his
stomach so that he can eat and keep his weight up.

Waters contends patients should not have the right to subject others to
secondhand marijuana smoke.

However, two other council members, Darrell Steinberg and Steve Cohn,
argued the city should take a longer look at what it can do to help
implement the state law and clear up confusion over who has the right to
cultivate medicinal marijuana.

Federal officials recently have clamped down on so-called pot clubs --
where medicinal marijuana is distributed -- around the state.

Steinberg asked the city attorney to investigate legal options for what the
city can do to allow legitimate medical clinics, such as CARES (Center for
AIDS Research, Education and Services) to cultivate marijuana for patients.

"We ought to protect people from the impact of secondhand smoke," Steinberg
said. "But if we are going to discuss this one aspect, we ought to discuss
what we can do to implement (Proposition 215), how to ensure that people
with AIDS have access to medicinal marijuana without fear of arrest and
prosecution."

Landers was rebuffed by the City Council last year when he asked for its
help to set up and regulate a marijuana distribution club in Sacramento. He
applauded Steinberg and Cohn's comments. "That's all I'm trying to do here,
see that patients have safe access to marijuana. That's all they need."

Waters estimated it could be up to a few months before the city attorney
will report back.

Copyright 1998 The Sacramento Bee

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)