NEW POT RULES AIM TO CLEAR SMOKE

State Tries to Make Vague Law a Little Less Murky

Even as state Attorney General Jerry Brown was preparing to release
new medical-marijuana guidelines praised by advocates, his narcotics
agents were busting a Southern California dispensary.

Mixed messages? Not necessarily.

Both Brown and medical marijuana advocates say the guidelines issued
recently finally flesh out the state's notoriously vague 1996
Compassionate Use Act and pose a threat only to illegal drug dealers
using the voter-approved medical marijuana law as a smoke screen.

"We've always believed that dispensaries should be regulated as
opposed to the 'Wild, Wild West' situation," said Americans for Safe
Access Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who conferred with the state on the
guidelines. "Many, if not most, of the clubs are already in
compliance, and I think in the not-so-distant future the vast
majority of them will be. They wanted guidelines, too, so they'd know
what to do to comply with California law."

The most important part of these guidelines is the recognition that
storefront medical marijuana dispensaries can operate legally, Elford
said Thursday.

"It's our view, then, that localities passing outright bans on
dispensaries are acting contrary to California law," he said.

Brown doesn't necessarily agree.

"I don't want to go beyond the guidelines," he said Friday, adding
local dispensary bans are "a whole other question that I have to talk
to my lawyers about, I don't want to give an opinion off the top of my head."

Elford said the guidelines send a "clear message to the federal
government that dispensaries are here to stay, and "... that they
should stop busting dispensaries because we can police our own."

Yet most recent federal raids have targeted dispensaries, which
federal authorities claim are criminal enterprises that wouldn't meet
Brown's new criteria, anyway.

And, asked whether it's significant that Brown issued the guidelines
just a few days after his Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement raided a
Northridge marijuana dispensary, Elford replied, "I hope not "... I
don't know about the timing."

Brown said the only thing to read into the timing is that "we've been
looking at some of the clinics that are flagrantly violating the
law." The Northridge club was raided as an outgrowth of another,
unrelated investigation, he said, but other clubs are under scrutiny.

Many communities remain antagonistic to dispensaries, he said. "In
the Bay Area, you don't feel the same intensity as when you're
talking to people in Riverside and San Bernardino and San Diego."

Brown's 11-page document says a collective dispensary can't be
operated for profit and must have a defined organizational structure
including detailed records proving users are legitimate patients with
doctor recommendations.

"The collective should not purchase marijuana from, or sell to,
nonmembers; instead, it should only provide a means for facilitating
or coordinating transactions between members," the new guidelines
say. The "cycle should be a closed circuit of marijuana cultivation
and consumption with no purchases or sales to or from nonmembers. To
help prevent diversion of medical marijuana to nonmedical markets,
collectives and cooperatives should document each member's
contribution of labor, resources or money to the enterprise. They
also should track and record the source of their marijuana."

Dispensaries, for example, "that merely require patients to complete
a form summarily designating the business owner as their primary
caregiver - and then offering marijuana in exchange for cash
'donations' - are likely unlawful." Excessive amounts of marijuana
and cash; failure to follow local and state laws applicable to
similar businesses, such as licenses and tax payments; weapons;
illegal drugs; sales to or purchases from nonmembers; and
distribution outside California are red flags for law enforcement,
the guidelines say.