D.A., POT CLUB OWNER SEEK WAYS AROUND COURT BAN ON SALES

SAN FRANCISCO

Patients may still be able to get their daily dose of cannabis despite a
court ruling that prevents therapeutic pot outlets from selling their
wares, the San Francisco district attorney and the owner of the
country's largest medical marijuana club said yesterday.

The two supporters of medical marijuana said that potential loopholes in
Friday's California Court of Appeal ruling which barred San Francisco
Cannabis Cultivators Club owner Dennis Peron from selling pot because he
does not meet the criteria for a ``primary caregiver'' may allow the
order to be circumvented because it makes it effectively impossible for
qualified users to obtain pot.

Moreover, they said, the definition of a primary caregiver remains
broad.

San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan said he found it
``incredible'' that Californians may legally possess marijuana for
medical reasons, but that obtaining the weed appears illegal under the
new ruling.

The courts, he said, must provide a reasonable mechanism that allows
patients to obtain the pot that was authorized for people with
debilitating diseases by last year's passage of Proposition 215, the
medical marijuana initiative.

``I don't see how you can use marijuana legally if you can't obtain
it,'' Hallinan said.