Medical Marijuana Club Says It Has A Deal With San Jose Police

Maria Alicia Gaura, Chronicle South Bay Bureau

Two directors of San Jose's medical marijuana dispensary say
they've reached a deal with police that will allow the club
to continue to operate legally.

Police have agreed to soften their position and are
recommending a change in the city's laws requiring the
dispensary to grow pot on site, according to the directors,
Peter Baez and Jesse Garcia.

Police and city officials refused to comment, but a
spokeswoman for City Attorney Joan Gallo confirmed that
portions of the city's laws regulating medical marijuana
dispensaries are under review.

Baez, executive director of the Santa Clara County Medical
Marijuana Center, said he no longer fears arrest even though
the center is operating outside the city's law. The law
requires the center to grow all of its marijuana supplies
inside its tiny Meridian Avenue office, which center
officials said would put them out of business.

``We met with (San Jose Chief of Police Louis) Cobarruviaz,
and he assured us that he very much supports the spirit of
Proposition 215,'' the state initiative that legalized
medical use of marijuana, Baez said. ``He said he would
recommend changes to the law, and in the meantime we are
going ahead with business as usual.''

Baez and Garcia threatened last week to stop eating and to
discontinue their treatments for cancer and HIV if the city
didn't change the onsite cultivation rule.

The rule was imposed by the city because transporting
marijuana remains illegal under state and federal law.

Baez, whose group provides marijuana to more than 150
patients, said the cultivation requirement was impossible to
meet. The center wants permission to transport marijuana
from a San Francisco grower until it can set up a growing
operation in San Jose in a location separate from the
office.

Other Bay Area cities such as Oakland and Fairfax have
ignored the state law and allowed marijuana to be grown away
from where it is distributed.

Baez and Garcia also protested a provision in the city law
that allowed police to examine patients' medical files at
any time, without a search warrant.

According to Baez, Cobarruviaz agreed to recommend that the
city allow the files to remain confidential, in part because
the center now has an onstaff physician, Dr. Dennis
Augustine, who can invoke physician patient privacy rights.

Calls to the police department were referred to Sergeant
Scott Savage, who could not confirm details of the meeting.

Even with a positive recommendation from the chief of
police, any changes in the city's laws must be reviewed by
the city attorney and adopted by the city council, according
to Kevin Pursglove, spokesman for Mayor Susan Hammer. At
this time there is no plan to bring any changes before the
council, he said.

San Jose was the first city in the United States to regulate
and license medical marijuana dispensaries, but no group has
yet been able to meet the requirements of the new law.

Baez's group has worked with the city to develop the new
law, and is currently the only group openly distributing
marijuana to sick people in the state's third largest city.