CANCER VICTIM'S LEGACY HELPING POT LAW SURVIVE

IT'S BEEN more than a year since cancer killed Karyn Sinunu's pal Bernie.
They'd been friends for a quartercentury, since they were nextdoor
neighbors consulting and commiserating over their kids' scraped knees and
class field trips.

They were friends long before Sinunu became assistant district attorney for
Santa Clara County and before Bernie learned she'd have to raise her four
daughters while battling a malignancy so vicious her entire stomach would
be removed before it was all over at age 52.

Sinunu doesn't mention Bernie's last name when she talks about her
publicly. But she thinks it's important to talk about her because Bernie
taught Sinunu something that's made the last days of life a little easier
for terminally ill people in this county.

Like a lot of prosecutors, Sinunu had taken a dim view of Proposition 215,
the ballot measure to legalize medicinal marijuana. But when her buddy
Bernie, a PTA mom who rarely had even a glass of wine, began smoking pot in
the final months of her life, Sinunu reconsidered her position. When she
saw that marijuana was the only thing that could ease Bernie's crippling
bouts of nausea long enough to enjoy the last days with her family, Sinunu
began to see Proposition 215 very differently than other California
prosecutors, including the attorney general.

SHE found that as one of Bernie's many friends in law enforcement, she
didn't have much of a moral conflict about Bernie's smoking pot. The
doctors had recommended it, but Sinunu didn't know where Bernie got it. And
she didn't ask.

``Bernie was a mom from another era. To see her in those last days was like
watching June Cleaver toking up,'' Sinunu said when I spoke with her in her
office on Christmas Eve. ``I had thought 215 was bogus. But when I saw
marijuana was the only thing that made Bernie feel better, I was ashamed.''

And that has a lot to do with why this is one of the few counties
enlightened enough not to treat medicinal marijuana smokers like dope
fiends. It has a lot to do with why Sinunu had AIDS patient Ed Willis'
confiscated pot plants returned to his Mountain View home last spring
because he had them on doctor's orders.

WHEN Proposition 215 passed last year, District Attorney George Kennedy,
who also knew Bernie, asked Sinunu to hammer out the county's policy on
complying with the law. And what they learned from Bernie has meant the
cannabis club on Meridian Avenue has not been hounded out of existence by
San Jose police, despite an appeals court ruling this month banning the
sale of marijuana to patients.

``That ruling was based on what goes on at the San Francisco marijuana
club,'' Sinunu said. ``People are not smoking at the (San Jose) club or
selling marijuana on the street. In fact, they've even turned in a couple
of people to us who had phony doctors' notes.''

Politicians and prosecutors have gotten a lot of familyvalues mileage out
of trumpeting a tough, uncompromising approach to the ``war on drugs.''
Maybe that's why it took a June Cleaverstyle homemaker to inspire a humane
compromise.

``Hey, if people deal pot in St. James Park, we're going to prosecute,''
Sinunu said. ``But some drugs do have their place. It's a public health
issue.''

And when Sinunu comes up against someone who doesn't think so, she talks
about Bernie.

``I remember one time when she told me, `I couldn't get my marijuana and it
ruined my whole day,' '' Sinunu said, her voice hushed. ``When you're
dying, a day is a long time.''