EDITORIAL THE LEGISLATURE SHOULD STEP INTO POT DISPUTE

NOW THAT the state Court of Appeal has barred marijuana clubs from peddling
pot for medicinal use, the Legislature should establish an accountable
distribution system to replace the haphazard and quasilegal way it is sold
today.

When voters approved Proposition 215 last year they legalized marijuana as
medicine. The law though fuzzily written was clearly intended to
allow seriously ill patients and their caregivers to grow and possess
marijuana for medical use when recommended by a doctor.

Friday's ruling prohibited San Francisco's Cannabis Cultivators Club owner
Dennis Peron from selling marijuana because he does not qualify as a
``primary caregiver,'' a reasonable reading of the law. Attorney General
Dan Lungren said the ruling applies to all 15 of the state's ``cannabis
clubs,'' and he will start closing them down within 30 days.

Prop. 215 was not intended to provide job security for marijuana dealers or
pleasant lounging areas for dopers to smoke pot and socialize. It was a
humane solution to a controversial medical question that had become
hopelessly mired in drugwar politics.

Scientists are finally doing critical, if limited, research on the efficacy
of marijuana and it is high time that state lawmakers address the issue
headon and come up with a legal and aboveboard way to provide the drug to
patients who need it.

Among the promising local proposals to legitimize medical pot distribution
is one being studied in San Mateo County where marijuana would be given
free to eligible patients at the county hospital and clinics.

``It makes absolutely no sense to say sick people may use marijuana, but
neglect to provide a way they may legally obtain it,'' says Supervisor Mike
Nevin, who authored the San Mateo plan. Under his proposal, confiscated
illegal marijuana would be distributed without charge to eligible patients,
their designated representatives or hospice workers with countyissued ID
cards. The scheme would take the profit out of medical pot, remove its
underground stigma and eliminate the need for private clubs as
dispensaries. There are many details to be worked out, but it's a start.

With Governor Wilson and Attorney General Lungren unalterably opposed to
pot, medical or otherwise, it is the Legislature's duty to find a legal,
structured way to dispense medical marijuana.