Plan calls for county to dispense pot

Supervisor Nevin: His proposal to let government distribute medicinal
marijuana creates an odd trio of allies.

BY ALAN GATHRIGHT
Mercury News Staff Writer

You wouldn't expect a streetwise, expolice detective to advocate
distributing contraband marijuana to the sick through county public health
clinics.

But San Mateo County Supervisor Mike Nevin, who jokingly calls himself
``Supervisor Pot,'' is on a deadserious mission of mercy: creating the
first governmentrun medicinal marijuana dispensary in the United States.

``I'm trying to find a compassionate way of getting this drug, that is now
legal, to the sick and dying people who need it,'' said Nevin, the board
president who served 27 years as a San Francisco police inspector.

Nevin, who has the support of a majority of the fivemember board, hopes to
get approval at a supervisor's meeting today to push for special state
legislation authorizing the pilot project.

His plan is also getting a hearing from unexpected quarters. State Attorney
General Dan Lungren, without committing his support, has assigned a staff
attorney to work with the county to develop a project proposal, Nevin said.

The supervisor also expects to ask state Sen. John Vasconcellos, DSanta
Clara, to include the pilot project in legislation for a threeyear study on
the effectiveness of medicinal marijuana.

It would be an odd political alliance: Vasconcellos, the New Age liberal and
possible Democratic gubernatorial candidate, working with the lawandorder
Lungren, an archfoe of Proposition 215 and probable Republican candidate,
to approve a government pot program devised by the Democratic excop, Nevin.

Like many local officials across California, Nevin is confounded that a year
after voters passed Proposition 215, allowing physician approval of
medicinal marijuana for seriously ill people, local governments are still
divided and fumbling about how the drug can be delivered to those in need.

Proposition 215 allows for patients to have marijuana grown by vaguely
defined ``primary caregivers,'' giving rise to socalled cannabis clubs,
which some counties have declared illegal.

Officials in San Jose, Alameda and San Francisco counties have, with police
scrutiny, tolerated medicinal pot dispensaries. State and federal law still
prohibit the transportation of marijuana for any use.

Nevin said his plan safeguards delivery of medicinal marijuana to suffering
people, while preventing dope dealers from masquerading as Florence
Nightingales. County pharmacists would assure the quality of marijuana
seized by police and distribute it to patients or their caregivers who show
identity cards confirming a doctor's approval.

``Utopia would be (if) you put it in Longs and Walgreens, but the Drug
Enforcement Administration would never allow that,'' Nevin said.

But Lungren may be eager for alternatives to a dispensary after losing
initial court skirmishes to shut the San Francisco pot club. Lungren has
called ``enlightened'' the proposals by San Mateo and Marin counties to
issue marijuana identity cards to patients and their caregivers, which would
allow them to grow enough marijuana for medicinal needs.

`Communistic infringement'

While some would call it nirvana if the government began to dole out
subsidized or free pot, Salvador Garcia said the county program would be ``a
communistic infringement on my right to free enterprise.'' Garcia is miffed
because the county temporarily banned his proposal for a medicinal pot
dispensary last month. The county counsel now says that any marijuana
distribution private or public is illegal until state and federal laws
are changed.

Garcia vowed to rally about 50 patients, doctors and supporters for a ``Lift
The Ban'' protest at Tuesday's supervisors meeting. An engineer who
volunteers at the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, Garcia argued that if
the county used confiscated marijuana, there will be no ``quality control.''

``We wouldn't know where their marijuana comes from, how old and moldy it
is, what it's been laced with,'' said Garcia. He said he's used his
marijuanagrowing skills to make pot cookies that put 30 pounds back on his
cancerstricken brother's gaunt frame.

Coastal greenhouses

Garcia suggested that the county's antimarijuana stance would hamper its
ability to operate dispensaries. But with his help, Garcia suggested the
county could use coastal greenhouses to grow the marijuana.

``They're in a perfect position to wholesale the marijuana, control the
cultivation quality and regulate the distribution to private dispensaries
throughout the state. But instead they want to dominate the whole situation
and stifle free enterprise,'' Garcia said.

Nevin laughingly replied: ``So I'm going to get quality control from Garcia?
My God! The county has pharmacists far more capable of determining what is
good and what isn't good than a wellmeaning layman who's dealing with a
cannabis club.''

Meanwhile, supervisors Rich Gordon, Mary Griffin and Tom Huening have
expressed support for Nevin's plan.

Barrales opposes plan

But Supervisor Ruben Barrales said: ``I don't think the county should be in
the business of distributing marijuana,'' and he's strongly opposed to
Garcia opening a private dispensary in North Fair Oaks, where ``people are
fighting to get drugs out of their community.''

Griffin, who recalled giving morphine injections to a husband dying from
cancer, said: ``If somebody is critically or terminally ill and the doctor
says marijuana can bring relief, why shouldn't we let them have it? It can't
be more addictive than morphine.''

Gordon said government distribution might be the solution to the Proposition
215 muddle. ``To have 58 counties in California all approaching this in a
different way doesn't make sense. I'm inclined to suggest that this county
take the leadership in presenting Mr. Nevin's proposal to the state
Legislature as way to get this matter cleared up.''