SAN MATEO MEDICAL COUNTY POT STUDY

Peninsula Marijuana Study Makes Sense

EAST Bay officials might want to take a look at what's occurring across the
Bay in San Mateo County

There, the Board of Supervi5 has decided to form a committee to study the
feasibility of having San Mateo county distribute marijuana to the
terminally ill. The idea, the brainchild of board president Mike Nevin, a
former San Francisco Police officer, is intriguing. The plan has also been
crafted with the help state Attorney General Dan Lungren.

The use of marijuana to help ease the suffering of cancer and AIDS patients
has in found to be beneficial in some cases, particularly with nausea
associated with chemotherapy.

Voter approval of Proposition 215, ich essentially legalizes the medicinal
of the drug in California, was a big and important step.

San Mateo County has not been an advocate of socalled "cannabis clubs,"
unulated outlets that dispense marijuana their own. There are such clubs
currently operating in Berkeley and Oakland. Attorney General Lungren
claims cannabis clubs are not legal, although has not made a concerted
effort to close them due to one murky nature of Proposition 215: how is the
marUuana to be distributed?

San Mateo County's plan would use confiscated pot which police obtain in
the course of their duties and distribute it at county health facilities.
Cannabis clubs in Berkeley and Oakland purchase their pot through
contracted growers, which is where Lungren sees the illegality.

The whole aspect of San Mateo County's plan is to treat marijuana like any
other prescribed medication, keeping it controlled and distributed by
medical professionals.

So far, the county does not have the authority to set up a mechanism to
distribute the drug. Clearly, that would have to change if the supervisors
are to have any chance to implement a system of dispensing the material
through county clinics.

We encourage a study of the issue. It could provide other Bay Area agencies
with a blueprint for dealing with the future of marijuana as an analgesic.

If the pain and discomfort of the dying can be eased by the use of legal
pot, we see benefits in local government's careful involvement