TOO HIGH IN CALIFORNIA? FOR THOSE IN MEDICAL NEED, POT CLUBS OFFER HELP.
BUT WASHINGTON MAY TRY TO SPOIL THE PARTY ATMOSPHERE

A sixfoot cannabis leaf painted on the front door proudly advertises the
wares of the San Francisco Cannabis Cultivators Club. Inside the fivestory
glassandconcrete emporium on busy Market Street, origami cranes and
LEGALIZE POT posters provide the decor, while live flamenco dancers on a
thirdfloor stage supply the entertainment. At either of two bars,
customersall of whom are at least nominally required to show they have
come on doctor's orderscan choose from among 10 grades of marijuana leaf,
along with capsules, tinctures and half a dozen varieties of potlaced
baked goods. A lavender haze of smoke fills the air. "Want to get high?" a
smiling volunteer staff member asked a recent visitor.

This turnedon scene may not be what Californians envisioned when they
voted last November to enact Proposition 215, legalizing the use of
marijuana for medical purposes. The beneficiaries were supposed to be AIDS
sufferers, people in chronic pain, cancer patients going through
chemotherapy and others in medical need. But the law does not specify the
medical conditions for which pot is permissible, and it requires only a
doctor's oral or written permission, not a formal prescription, to get the
drug.

Many of the 20 or so pot clubs that have sprung up around the state in
response to the lawplaces where people in need can get a steady supply of
the drugare strictly monitoring their customers. The Santa Clara County
Medical Cannabis Center dispenses a pound of marijuana a week from its
discreet, whitewalled suite in a business complex. When one wouldbe
customer proffered a doctor's recommendation that he had allegedly forged,
cofounder Peter Baez called the police and later went to court to help
press charges.

But other clubs seem closer to head shops than hospitals. Dennis Peron, a
propot proselytizer who helped draft Prop 215 and runs the San Francisco
Cannabis Cultivators Club, admits he sells pot for everything from
premenstrual syndrome to the blues. "All use of marijuana is medical," says
Peron. "It makes you smarter. It touches the right brain and allows you to
slow down, to smell the flowers. We're living in a very stressful world. It
can and should be used for anxiety and depression."

Lawenforcement agencies are in a quandary over what to do about clubs like
Peron's. A few cities, such as Concord and Palo Alto, have instituted
moratoriums on pot clubs. California attorney general Dan Lungren, a
lawandorder Republican, is pursuing civil and criminal litigation against
Peron's club; he says undercover cops have bought marijuana there without a
doctor's recommendation and that videotapes have shown minors on the
premises.

Federal officials are in an especially delicate position. Marijuana use,
even for medical purposes, is still outlawed by the U.S. government, and
Attorney General Janet Reno has vowed to continue enforcing that law. But
federal officials have been reluctant to crack down on the pot clubs that
were created in response to the will of California voters. In April agents
of the Drug Enforcement Administration raided a Bay Area cannabis club
called Flower Therapy and seized 331 marijuana plants and growing
equipment, charging that the club was distributing pot in quantities larger
than what was needed by its ill customers. But the raid was denounced by
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and other city officials, and U.S.
Attorney Mike Yamaguchi declined to file criminal charges. "It's
maddening," seethes a federal agent, who works just four blocks away from
Peron's Cannabis Cultivators Club. "You can see hundreds of people an hour
coming out of that place. We think some of these clubs are distributing
marijuana to basically anybody who walks through the door."

Now, however, the Clinton Administration, seeking to counter Republican
charges of lack of leadership on the drug issue, is looking for a way to
move against the clubs. Federal sources tell TIME that the Administration
may try to shut down some highvolume cannabis clubs under the
seldominvoked civil provisions of the federal Controlled Substances Act,
which allows the Justice Department to ask a federal judge to halt a
drugdistribution operation. The advantages of this approach are that the
case is decided by a judge, not a jury, and the government need not prove
the club's proprietors acted with criminal intent. A club operator who
persists in peddling pot could then face a fine or imprisonment for
contempt of court.

Antidrug activists fear that pot clubs, if allowed to thrive, could open
the way to further relaxation of drug policy. Steve Dnistrian of the
Partnership for a DrugFree America claims that heartrending medical
stories are a being used as a smoke screen "by people whose agenda is to
radically change drug policy in America." On that point, at least, Peron
seems in agreement. "This is not about marijuana as medicine," he says.
"This is a cultural war."