MEDICAL MARIJUANA BATTLE HEATS UP

U.S. Seeks To Shut Down 6 Distribution Clubs In California

LOS ANGESLES, March 22 -- The U.S. government will go to court this week in
California to attempt to shut down centers for the distribution of
marijuana for medical pruposes. Such distribution was made legal in the
state by the passage of Proposition 215.

IT MAY BE illegal under federal law, but in the state of California
marijuana as medicine is just what the voters ordered when they approved
Proposition 215 back in 1996.

The goal of the measure was to ease the pain of patients suffering from
serious illnesses like AIDS and cancer.

"I don't abuse medication so I don't abuse marijuana. I use it only when
when I need it," said David Sanders, a member of the Oakland Cannabis
Cooperative.

Clubs and co-ops across the state like the one in Oakland openly supply
marijuana.

"A lot of patients that we serve don't have access to this medicine in any
other means," said Jeff Jones, the executive director of the Oakland co-op.

But now the federal government is suing to have six of the distribution
clubs shut down, and that has pitted two high-profile law enforcers against
each other.

In San Francisco, District Attorney Terence Hallinan is a staunch defender
of Proposition 215. "we've learned to live with it," he told NBC News. "It
hasn't been a problem for the city of San Francisco."

In Sacramento state Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Dan
Lundgren is an outspoken critic. "Two-fifteen has a very limited
application," Lundgren says. He believes distribution centers for marijuana
are not protected by the law.

While most centers like the Oakland co-op are low key, dispensing drugs
like a clinic, the state's largest operation in San Francisco is not. The
Cannabis Cultivator's Club looks and feels much more like a club -- and
that's what's making it controversial.

The club's director, Dennis Peron, vows they will not be shut down. "They
can come bring in the tanks here and I won't give up." The showdown over
medical marijuana comes to a federal courtroom later this week.

Hallinan has said he will find a way to help patients in need no matter
what the court decides.