DOCTOR'S ORDERS ON MEDICAL POT

THE STATE Supreme Court has effectively taken the loosely run marijuana
``clubs'' out of the business of distributing medical marijuana.

This is a positive development. The intent of Californians who voted for
Proposition 215 was clear and simple: To give doctors the ability to
prescribe marijuana to ease the pain and nausea of AIDS, cancer, glaucoma
or other conditions. It was not -- as some of these clubs seem to think --
to blow a huge loophole in marijuana laws.

The notion that San Francisco's Cannabis Cultivators Club is a ``primary
caregiver'' of health treatment is just absurd -- as the courts have
sensibly concluded.

To be sure, the court rulings have narrowed most patients' options to an
untenable degree. Basically, the only clearly legal way for a patients to
obtain medical marijuana would be to grow it themselves or for their
caregivers to grow it.

Thus, the next move should be made by the Legislature, which can establish
clear guidelines to control the distribution of medical marijuana. If
marijuana is to be treated as a serious medicinal option -- as it should be
- -- it should be prescribed and handled with a discernment that is notably
lacking at many of the clubs.

)1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page A27