FOUR CALIFORNIA MAYORS URGE CLINTON TO STOP LAWSUITS AGAINST 'CANNABIS
CLUBS'

LOS ANGELES, March 18—The mayors of four California cities, including San
Francisco and Oakland, appealed to President Clinton today to drop federal
lawsuits aimed at closing "cannabis clubs" that opened after voters approved
a 1996 ballot initiative legalizing medical marijuana.

San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. said he was "deeply troubled" by
Justice Department lawsuits and asked Clinton to impose a moratorium on
enforcement of federal drug laws that could interrupt the clubs' operations
until federal and local officials meet to discuss an end to the impasse.

Brown said 11,000 Californians in pain from AIDS, cancer and other illnesses
depend on the two dozen marijuana dispensaries, most of them in the northern
part of the state. If the patients are denied the drug, they will have to
"search back alleys and street corners for their medicine," the mayor said.

Joining Brown in sending similarly worded letters to Clinton were Oakland
Mayor Elihu M. Harris, Santa Cruz Mayor Celia Scott and West Hollywood Mayor
Steve Martin.

Brown said he will "abide by the primacy of federal law," but in return he
expects respect of local governments' experience and expertise in developing
community-based solutions to public health problems.

San Francisco's stridently liberal district attorney, Terence Hallinan, was
less restrained. He said if the federal government closes marijuana clubs,
city health workers may be called on to distribute the drug to patients.

Hallinan contended that a vast majority of San Francisco residents and
officials supports medical use of marijuana. If the clubs are closed, he
said, "what is now a reasonably well-controlled, safe distribution system --
one that has been characterized by cooperation with city officials and one
that is inspected by the Health Department -- will instead devolve into a
completely unregulated, and unregulable, public nuisance."

While stressing that the proposal to enlist city employees to distribute
marijuana is now only a "hypothetical," Michael Katz, director of the San
Francisco Health Department, said the city has an "absolute commitment" to
distribute marijuana to those who need it.

The federal lawsuits against six San Francisco Bay area cannabis clubs
contend that the clubs violate federal laws against cultivating and
distributing marijuana.

The new state law allows a doctor to recommend marijuana to ill people and
permits a patient to use it with a doctor's recommendation and a "primary
care giver" to provide it if the patient is unable to obtain the drug. State
Attorney General Dan Lungren contends -- with the backing of federal drug
officials -- that the law still does not allow commercial enterprises like
the cannabis clubs to distribute marijuana.

Earlier this week, Lungren, who is a Republican candidate for governor,
suggested he might prosecute city officials who dispense marijuana to
patients.

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