CANNABIS CLUB AWAITS OUTCOME OF BELAIR RAID
By: Theresa Moreau Daily News Staff Writer

Amid the glitz of West Hollywood, there are many exclusive clubs, but
just one where not anyone can become a member.

The main criteria of joining the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers' Club is
singular in nature a debilitating disease that requires marijuana to ease
pain, boost appetite or provide other therapy.

``It's a nice club if you need it, but who wants to have the
preconditions to get in?'' asked Scott Imler, founder of the club, which is
housed in an airy secondfloor loft above an auto garage on Santa Monica
Boulevard.

Imler officially opened the club Nov. 5, 1996, the day California voters
passed Proposition 215, which allows marijuana use for medicinal reasons
with the backing of a physician.

On Tuesday the club has reached another important benchmark: The arrest
of BelAir resident Todd McCormick who is accused of growing 4,116 pot
plants that he contends is his right under the ballot initiative.

McCormick was not a member of the club and did not supply it with
marijuana, but his arrest is expected to test the legal boundaries of
Proposition 215, which could change how the club does business and
whether it does business.

``Standards are going to be set for what's going to be acceptable and
unacceptable for what the provision means under Proposition 215,'' he said.

At the same time, Imler and others are concerned that the arrest could
wipe out the club's work to earn the trust of law enforcement and operate
under the initiative. The club was raided in 1996, two months before
Proposition 215 was adopted, but since then it has operated without trouble
from the law.

``Stuff like this risks ruining it for all of us,'' Imler said.

Further, Imler said he was unsure of McCormick's motives. ``The scope of
Todd's operation was huge, and in my mind it was one more example of a
`potrepreneur' trying to cash in in the wake of 215,'' Imler said.

The rules are strict for prospective members: Each must present a letter
of recommendation from a doctor, which must be able to be verified.

There now are 580 members, all card carriers and all sick. By
midafternoon the day's first members began climbing the long staircase to
the club.

At the front door, one ashenfaced man suffering from AIDS, and shaking
so badly he needed help to climb up the stairs, presented his
identification to fellow members.

``You look great today,'' said Jay Fritz, who screens all potential
members.

``Marijuana is God's medicine,'' Fritz said. ``And this is not a party
house. We're here for a reason medical marijuana.''

Soon others followed, including a 56yearold woman, a former city
worker for the city of Pasadena, who suffers from a disease in which her
nervous system is slowly deteriorating.

After walking into the club, she picked up a menu of the week's
offerings, made her selection, then walked up to the window where
pharmacist Jeff Farrington handed her a pink container with buds of Ultra
Red Seven $20 per gram for the high quality, best of crop, and high
content of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.