MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE UNRESOLVED

SAN FRANCISCO -- In a room painted purple just above a busy San Francisco
street, Wayne Justmann nibbles on gingerbread cookies laced with marijuana
as part of an effort to save his life.

A former schoolteacher who moved to California from Cicero, Ill., Justmann
is HIV-positive and volunteers full-time as a security guard at the
Cannabis Healing Center on Market Street.

The five-story building serves as one of more than 20 sites distributing
marijuana for medicinal use in California.

State voters approved possession and use of the drug for gravely and
terminally ill patients in 1996 with passage of Proposition 215.

But legal use of marijuana by patients remains a quandary.

State and federal law enforcement consider selling the drug illegal, in
spite of the passage of Proposition 215.

This week, sheriff's deputies raided the Cannabis Healing Center and shut
it down, under orders from a San Francisco Superior Court judge.

That decision followed a federal judge's ruling that six clubs should close
down because California's medical marijuana initiative does not overrule
federal statutes declaring marijuana an illegal drug, regardless of who
uses it.

Like many patients, Justmann says he needs marijuana to keep his weight stable.

Eighteen months ago, the weight on his 6-foot, 1-inch frame dropped to 208
pounds, and he said that left his body vulnerable to full-blown AIDS.

"Because my body doesn't have the energy to fight the disease, the immunity
system just weakens," he said at the center, a few days before its closure.

To gain weight, Justmann, 53, was taking a "prescription" of three to four
joints a day, approved via a phone call the center would make to each
client's doctor. Justmann would select from lesser to more expensive grades
of marijuana from a chalkboard menu.

After choosing either a brownie, tincture for tea, a capsule or plain dried
leaves for smoking, his purchase was placed in a plastic Baggie and labeled
"Rx; To be taken for: pain, nausea, muscle spasms, arthritis, glaucoma and
loss of appetite."

Justmann's weight is back up to his usual 260 pounds, for which he credits
a regimen of protease inhibitors and marijuana.

"Whoever thought in the '60s the munchies would be a medical reason to use
marijuana?" laughed the center's founder, Dennis Peron, sitting nearby.

"But it is," he emphasized, turning serious.

Peron's lover died of AIDS and inspired him to open the center, which he
did in 1994.

The center, originally known as the Cannabis Buyers Club, has been a
frequent target of California Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren.

Lungren, a Republican, is running for governor. Peron, who delights in
remaining a thorn in Lungren's side, is also running for governor on the
Republican ticket.

Peron, 53, a leading figure in the '96 campaign on behalf of Proposition
215, hopes to garner votes against Lungren in Tuesday's primary, where
Lungren is an overwhelming favorite to gain the GOP nomination.

Peron's campaign headquarters were located inside the Cannabis Healing
Center. He hopes to find a way to get back inside the padlocked building so
he can continue his campaign in the week before the primary.

This week's raid was not the first time the center has been targeted by law
enforcement officials.

In April last year, state drug enforcement authorities shut down the center
and confiscated 11,000 members' medical records.

The club reopened later under the new name of the Cannabis Cultivators Club
and continued openly selling marijuana until last month. Lungren ordered
the club closed again, and Peron was sent packing with a marijuana plant
tucked under his arm.

But the next day, the club opened again, this time with 79-year-old Hazel
Rodgers installed in Peron's place as director.

The latest shutdown, which Peron had been expecting, isn't seen as all bad
news by supporters of medical marijuana.

"We're looking for the opportunity to defend ourselves to a jury of our
peers--the people who voted for Prop. 215," Peron said.

But the Justice Department also sees the recent court ruling as a victory.
To spokesman Gregory King, the message is straightforward: "It's a
violation of federal law to cultivate or distribute marijuana." He said
California's initiative legalizing marijuana for medical use is irrelevant.
"Federal law supersedes state law," he said.

The department wants to close the clubs as soon as possible to send a clear
message to all states considering legalizing marijuana.

Many states already have relaxed rules on the books about possessing less
than an ounce of the drug, and some laws further favor medical users.

Arizona in 1996 passed a state law similar to California's, legalizing use
of marijuana for medical purposes.

San Francisco District Atty. Terence Hallinan has vowed to fight the latest
legal challenges.

"I very much resent the fact that state and federal authorities are
sticking their nose into San Francisco and making it very difficult for us
to fulfill the mandate of Proposition 215," Hallinan said.

He and several state officials attended a Medical Marijuana Distribution
Summit in Sacramento on Tuesday to find a way for the state to take over
distributing marijuana if federal authorities succeed in shutting the clubs
down.

Scott Imler, executive director of the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer's Club,
also attended. "We will ultimately have to find a way to get this medicine
into pharmacies," he said.

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)