Source: Conta Costa Times, 8/8/97, Local news section

Contact: cctletrs@netcom.com

Medical Marijuana a tough sell

IT'S JUST SO hard to sell marijuana east of the Caldecott. The legal,
medicinal kind. Ask Bob Judd, a man trying to bring legal pot to the
'burbs.

There's a receptive audience: 63 percent of Contra Costa voters approved
of Proposition 215.

But Judd realizes that Cannabis Club type places that flourish in San
Francisco and Oakland won't fly here. "People don't want to go to a place
where people are smoking all around them," he says. "People here say,
'Hey, I didn't vote for that.'"

So Judd has crafted a dope delivery business for communities that still
may associate pot with flagburning hippies, not as pain relief for
terminally ill or disabled people.

Judd will deliver pot to them. Cheaper than places west, and he won't
grow it on his Martinez property~ Instead of giving dope to patients
hearing notes from doctors, Judd would find patients through doctors.
That's trickier; docs are leery of appearing to prescribe pot.

Judd may be ahead of his time. In the four months that he's been trying
to get a license for a business in Martinez and Concord, Judd has been
stifled. Maybe he won't open the first dope business here, but he's
asking the tough questions.

Unfortunately, the key is Contra Costa District Attorney Gary Yancey.
Nobody moves until Yancey figures out how he's going to deal with an
admittedly hazy law. Gee, what's the hurry? Prop. 215 only passed nine
months ago.

Yancey worries that the law is vague about how much medicinal marijuana
folks can drive around with. That's legit. But then he says, "There are
cannabis clubs operating in Alameda County and San Francisco. If anyone
needs pot, they can trot across the border."

Sure, just drive 40 miles in excruciating pain, buy pot and drive home.
Just don't get pulled over on the way home with legal dope in the car.
Your district attorney won't feel your pain.

Still, Judd tries. This week, Judd in a matching black shirt, shorts,
boots and felt fedora, was on the second floor of Martinez City Hall, a
revised business license application in hand.

Since his first application inspired Martinez to ban medical pot sales
for the next 10 months, and Concord to follow suit, Judd has recrafted
Vivus Consolari into a home health care business taking food and doing
chores for the elderly and disabled. It's a way to establish ties with
potential pot customers.

But the woman behind the glass wall won't approve the application
because the name of the new business is the same as the pot business,
though the descriptions have changed.

Outside, Judd says, "I know this is going to take time. But I've got
plenty."

Before he began taking medicinal marijuna in December to relieve pain
from accidents over the past 15 years including one that put him in a
coma for four days no medication worked. By the late '80s, the former
boilermaker could only find work at a gas station. Not only has pot
helped him physically, but pursuing this business has given his life
hope.

Depending on his back spasms, Judd smokes three to six joints daily, one
or two puffs at a time. Not enough to get high, just relieve pain. Don't
worry he won't be the driver for the business.

Hurting the 41yearold Judd may be his record. As a teen, Judd was
busted for having pot plants. Several years later; he got a suspended
sentence for punching an undercover cop he mistook for a thug beating
somebody. In the early '90s, he served 14 months for an armed robbery
conviction that he's trying to have expunged.

But after spending time with him, I believe his motives are genuine.
Maybe he's not the buttoneddown type, but he understands his market's
desire.

Even 65 percent of Orinda residents voted for Prop. 215.

Joe Garofoli is at 5109438061, email at joeg@cctimes.com.