PASADENA CLASS TEACHES HOW TO LEGALLY DISPENSE MARIJUANA

PASADENA - On a recent rainy morning, Liz McDuffie was lecturing
about a dozen students inside a classroom at her Medical Cannabis
Caregivers Directory on Mentor Avenue.

She went over the the maze of legal issues surrounding the use and
sale of medical marijuana, discussed the process involved in becoming
a "primary care provider," and she spelled out the risks of operating
a medical marijuana dispensing business.

"This is a new industry that's going to turn California around, and
you're it," she told her students.

With U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder hinting this past week that
federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in California and
other states may stop in the future - and with last week's
introduction of a bill in the state Legislature seeking to legalize
and tax marijuana - McDuffie just might be right.

"The bottom line is that arguing the medical benefits of marijuana is
like arguing that the world is round," she said.

For the past two years, McDuffie has operated the MCCDirectory office
inside a nondescript building on Mentor, with half of her business
spot dedicated to a clothing store called Ritz Resale, which is
operated by her daughter.

The MCCDirectory has two stated purposes - to provide a searchable
directory of physicians and caregivers who prescribe and sell medical
marijuana, and to provide training for individuals interested in
providing medical marijuana services.

Alhough medical marijuana dispensaries are not allowed in Pasadena,
McDuffie's classes and services are protected under free speech laws,
city spokeswoman Ann Erdman said. MCCDirectory's business license
describes it as a physicians' referral service.

"We are not aware of any sales of any items including cannabis that
are being sold from there," Erdman said.

She added that there were no open investigations into the site by
code enforcement.

For a $130 class fee, MCCDirectory students like Shaun Szamzit and
Bruce Lehman can learn about everything marijuana related - from
handling encounters with law-enforcement officials to producing
cannabis-infused edibles and ointments.

"We're just learning about the laws and how to protect yourself," said Szamzit.

"It's important knowing what's legal," Lehman said.

McDuffie moves back and forth through the aisles of her classroom,
touching her students' on their shoulders and looking them in the eye
to get her points across.

She hands out several forms during the five-hour class, some of which
describe how to obtain a Department of Health Services Cannabis Card,
and others with lists of regulations pertaining to marijuana dispensaries.

McDuffie, 66, has been using cannabis for medical purposes since
1967, she said, when she developed migraine problems. She has since
used it for other conditions, she said.

The key to the industry's legitimization, she believes, is in
regulation and compliance. She preaches on everything from proper
labeling - even doing demonstrations of new software that helps label
containers of marijuana - to a medical marijuana certification
program, Clean Green, that she was instrumental in founding.

"It's so that people know that their cannabis is organic and safe,"
McDuffie said of Clean Green.

Run by Chris Van Hook, a licensed USDA organic certifier based in
Northern California, Clean Green independently certifies that medical
marijuana, according to its Web site, complies "with national and
international guidelines for organic and sustainable farming."

Van Hook, who said he's been in the agriculture industry for 23
years, started the Clean Green program about 6 years ago, at the
urging of McDuffie.

"She is very, very legitimate in the sense that her interest is only
in compliance," Van Hook said. "She's very dedicated to it, and I
think she holds her entire operation to a very high standard."

Van Hook said he modelled the program, still in its infant stages,
after the USDA's requirements. He said he inspects sites to verify
the nonuse of chemical and synthetic fertilizers and sprays and
compliance with state laws.

"The advantage of the program is that it assists in differentiating
legal and compliant from illegal and noncompliant, and that can only
be good for a state that allows medical cannabis," Van Hook said.
"I've toured these pot farms, and a lot of them use chemicals that
are not legal in California, that are not approved for use, that are
totally unregulated."

McDuffie has also been involved in politics, founding a
pro-environment political action committee in 2006 called the
Coalition for a Safe and Clean Environment with fellow marijuana
activist Philip Lujan.

The PAC has donated $17,425 to area politicians. McDuffie resigned
from it in June due to time constraints.

Despite Holder's comments last week, shifts in federal marijuana
enforcement policies have not necessarily happened on a national
level just yet, said Garrison Courtney, chief of public affairs of
the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, D.C.

"The new administration's coming in, they're still figuring out a lot
of the policies. A lot of the stuff hasn't trickled down yet to the
agencies themselves," Courtney said.

But in McDuffie's view, the war against medical marijuana is now all
but over - and medical pot has won.

"Please - it's here," said McDuffie. "The question is, how do we
gracefully make an entrance into the business community?"