GOLDEN HIGH
Get baked, snowboard, keep gold medal. Not bad.
Smoke medical pot in S.F., get picked on by pot-grabbing police. Not good.

By: Ted Anthony, Associated Press

Rebagliati: `I may have to wear a gas mask from now on'

NAGANO, Japan (AP) -- A smiling Ross Rebagliati returned to the public eye
today a gold medalist once more, chastened by his tangle with the Olympic
legal system but vowing not to forsake friends no matter what they might
do, say or ingest.

The Canadian snowboarder, whose medal was reinstated by an appeals board
after the International Olympic Committee stripped him of it when he tested
positive for marijuana, called this week's events a learning experience. He
thanked friends, family and country for standing behind him.

``The worse the sky came down on me, the more they supported me,''
Rebagliati said. ``No matter what the outcome was, I was their champion,
and that was the most important thing -- with or without the medal.''

Confident but not cocky, the 26-year-old with the tousled blond hair wore
his nation's Olympic jacket and the medal that he'd kept safe in his front
pocket while the appeals process played out.

Rebagliati argued successfully that the International Olympic Committee
didn't play by the rules when it stripped him of his prize. He said the
drug traces came from second-hand smoke -- marijuana used by his friends at
a going-away party last month in Whistler, British Columbia.

``I'm definitely going to change my lifestyle. ... I'm not going to change
my friends,'' he said at a news conference. ``I don't care what you think
about that. My friends are real and I'm going to stand behind them.''

But, he quipped, ``I may have to wear a gas mask from now on.''

Rebagliati said he wasn't angry at the IOC and sought no apology. ``Any
time there's a positive test, there's going to be a lot of questions,'' he
said.

The Court for Arbitration of Sport, in reinstating Rebagliati's medal
Thursday, said it ruled only that the IOC, lacking an agreement with the
international ski federation governing marijuana use, could not take back
the medal. The decision did not address the substantive issue of
recreational drugs.

The panel's decision cannot be appealed.

Canadians rejoiced. ``We were proud of Ross before,'' said Whistler's
mayor, Hugh O'Reilly. ``We're really proud now.''

Whistler and other communities in southern British Columbia are reputed to
have some of the world's most potent marijuana. Andrew Pipe, chairman of
the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport, said the strength of the region's
marijuana is four to five times normal levels.

British Columbia's outspoken premier, Glen Clark, compared the IOC's
attempted disqualification to ``getting the electric chair for a parking
infraction'' -- the trace level of 17.8 nanograms per milliliter found in
Rebagliati's urine.

``You can register a higher rating by watching a Cheech and Chong movie,''
Clark said.

Rebagliati won the men's giant slalom Sunday in the first Winter Games at
which snowboarding has been a medal sport. As a medal winner, he submitted
a urine sample.

On Wednesday, the IOC said it was taking away the medal because the test
came back positive for marijuana.

Marc Hodler, head of the international skiing federation, said his
organization opposes marijuana use, but argued the IOC needs a consistent,
unequivocal policy to prevent an encore of the Rebagliati case.

``If a snowboarder has a girlfriend in skating and they have both taken
marijuana together, the snowboarder would be disqualified and the skater
would get the medal,'' said Hodler, an IOC executive committee member.

``This has to be clearer,'' he said. ``The young people have to know what
the position of the IOC is.''

Tonight, the IOC announced it had appointed a ``working group'' to study
its marijuana policy. Citing the appeals board's call for an explicit set
of rules governing the drug's use, the IOC said it wanted to review its own
rules ``as soon as possible, taking into account all elements of concern.''

At his news conference, Rebagliati refused an opportunity to speak out
against marijuana use specifically, saying he didn't want to judge others.

``I'm not sending out a message for anybody to do what they don't want to
do,'' he said. ``All I'm saying is ... no matter what your decisions are,
you have to live with the things you choose to do.''

And what would have happened to the medal if the appeal hadn't gone his way?

Rebagliati smiled.

``It wasn't going to be easy to get it back from me.''

MEDICAL POT USERS CRY FOUL

They say S.F. cops are harassing them -- police deny it

By: Jason B. Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer

Supporters of medical marijuana use accused San Francisco police yesterday
of picking on them and confiscating their pot, but authorities said they
consider such users a low priority.

The spirited debate, which saw a wheelchair-bound man break into tears
while speaking before the Board of Supervisors' Health, Family and
Environment Committee, highlighted the continuing confusion surrounding
Proposition 215. ``Don't they know that we're sick and dying?'' Gary
Johnson, 41, said softly into a microphone. ``I'm losing control of my
legs. It's depressing for a grown man to turn into a child.''

Passed in November 1996 in 56- to-44 percent vote, Proposition 215 was
hailed as a way for the sick and terminally ill to ease their pain. But the
measure has been challenged in court.

Johnson said he suffers from wasting syndrome, a result of being
HIV-positive. But with the aid of marijuana, he's been able to reverse his
health-threatening weight loss, he said.

Johnson and several other speakers said that police were carrying out a
deliberate campaign of harassment against them.

``What I don't understand is what the problem is with us selling
marijuana,'' said Cynthia Citizen, 41, a member of the Cannabis Cultivators
Club. ``Doctors aren't arrested for selling prescription medicines.''

Proposition 215 was very popular among San Franciscans. More than 70
percent of local voters approved the statewide medical marijuana
initiative.

The Clinton administration has gone to federal court to shut down
California clubs that sell marijuana to cancer and AIDS patients under the
measure.

The Justice Department has filed suit to close six cannabis clubs,
including the Cannabis Cultivators Club and the Flower Therapy Medical
Marijuana Club, both in San Francisco.

Marijuana is listed in federal statutes as a Schedule I Controlled
Substance, along with heroin, mescaline and LSD. It is unlawful to grow it,
own it, sell it or smoke it.

But police and the district attorney's office said those using marijuana
for medicinal purposes are not being singled out.

Figures on the number of people arrested for the sale or use of marijuana
last year were not immediately available.

``The feds are not forcing our hand'' in terms of arrests, said Maggie
Lynch, a representative of the district attorney's office.

``We're not trying to step up prosecution.''

Narcotics Lieutenant Mike Puccinelli told supervisors that police have
adopted a ``hands off'' policy regarding medicinal users.

``It's not our intention to deny anyone of the medical use of marijuana,''
Puccinelli said.

Puccinelli said conflicting laws over the legality of pot use have turned
the issue into a ``huge mess'' for police.

Supervisors promised to continue reviewing the complaints to see if they
can take action to answer some of the problems interpreting the measure.

)1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page A23