MEDICAL MARIJUANA FOR THE MASSES

In the year since U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced federal
drug agents would stop targeting medicinal marijuana use where state
law sanctioned it, Santa Clara County -- like other parts of
California -- has become the Wild West.

But suddenly, the sheriff has ridden into town.

California, the first of 14 states that now allow medical marijuana,
has one of the loosest laws of its kind. It doesn't limit conditions
that qualify patients, nor does it require them to register with the
state. It gives doctors wide latitude in approving the drug's use.
And it doesn't specify how marijuana should be distributed to users.

Even though state voters next month will decide whether pot should be
legalized for recreational use, activists like Denis Peron --
co-author of the 1996 ballot measure that sanctioned medical
marijuana -- freely acknowledge the secret that's sparked an
explosion of distributors and left officials scrambling statewide:

"Pretty much," Peron said, "marijuana is legal already."

But while that may be true for anyone who takes the trouble to get a
doctor's recommendation, the situation is not as clear for medical
pot providers. In the past three weeks, Santa Clara County law
enforcement has sprung into action, shutting down two dispensaries
and a pot-delivery service. And while at first they raided operators
who didn't follow basic guidelines demanding a doctor's
recommendation, their latest target was one of the county's largest
and appeared to comply with all the rules.

The reason? Authorities believed the operators had crossed the line
from nonprofit collective to cash cow.

"These guys are making truckloads of money," said Bob Cooke, the
South Bay's special agent in charge of the state Bureau of Narcotics
Enforcement. He said many of the patrons at the dispensaries looked
"like the healthiest people in the world."

Even before the raids, San Jose code enforcement efforts to shut down
the most troublesome pot clubs prompted lawsuit threats from club
operators who say officials are misinterpreting-- or willfully
ignoring -- state law. Peron insists that under Proposition 215, "All
use of marijuana is medicine."

Cooke calls the tangle of regulations and court cases that dictate
medicinal marijuana use in California "a mess."

"It's a hard time for everybody trying to figure out what is legal
and what is illegal," he said. "These days, everybody has a marijuana
card, they treat it like it's a joke. Unfortunately, it is a joke. If
the law was written easier, it would be easier for us to enforce."

Nearly Anything Goes

For years after the passage of Proposition 215, U.S. officials
continued to enforce overriding federal law, under which pot remains
illegal. Even in tolerant towns like Santa Cruz that welcomed medical
marijuana, those who openly invoked the state's law faced ruinous
legal battles.

But Holder's announcement last fall emboldened sellers and users to
test the limits of what California's law might allow -- which appears
to be just about anything.

"California may be the loosest," said Keith Humphreys, a psychiatry
professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and former
White House adviser on drug control policy. "If it's not de facto
legalization, then it's getting pretty close."

The ease of obtaining pot from a storefront has attracted a growing
number of people like Hillary Breslove, an admitted "recreational
user" who calls herself a "high-functioning stoner."

With a doctor's nod, the 45-year-old Mountain View caterer smokes pot
for everyday bothers like stress that others might ease with an
aspirin. "I was tired of buying it out of the back of someone's
pocket," she said.

In San Jose, Holder's move inspired Dave Hodges last year to open the
San Jose Cannabis Buyers Collective -- among the first of what are
now dozens of dispensaries. After stints as a tech-support specialist
at Santa Clara High School and a Silicon Valley PR firm, he says he
became a medical cannabis patient to manage job stress. His pot
collective now has more than 3,600 patients.

Medical pot shops remain technically illegal in San Jose, where
zoning codes don't explicitly permit them. The city is considering
zoning to allow a limited number and is asking voters to approve
Measure U on the Nov. 2 ballot, which would authorize a tax up to 10
percent on marijuana businesses, legal or illegal.

Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Cruz already limit dispensaries.
Some Santa Clara County cities have tried to ban them. While San Jose
has dawdled on developing rules, the outlets have flourished. The
city, which a little more than a year ago had not a single dispensary
operating in the open, now has at least 60 that have paid city
business taxes. Online directories suggest at least a dozen others
are in operation.

Clinics advertise marijuana approvals for insomnia, premenstrual
syndrome, even substance abuse. With a valid state ID and about $50,
a physician's approval can be had with no appointment, "20 minutes in
and out." Users can then take the approval straight to a dispensary.

San Jose officials say they're waiting to complete work on medical
marijuana zoning and regulations until they see what happens with
statewide Proposition 19 on the November ballot.

Proposition 19 would legalize adult recreational pot smoking without
the pretense of medical need, but California is lurching that way
already. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes the initiative, but he
just signed a law reducing possession of small amounts without a
doctor's recommendation to a mere citation like a traffic ticket --
hoping to counter Proposition 19 backers who argue the state wastes
money and time prosecuting low-level drug crimes.

Holder announced last week that the federal government will not look
the other way if the state legalizes recreational pot.

How We Got Here

Even if Proposition 19 loses, it's not likely to change the fact that
the state's current regulations already allow almost anyone to get
marijuana. Among the reasons:

. California law doesn't specify what qualifies a patient for
marijuana. Proposition 215 lists ailments such as anorexia and AIDS
but allows it for "any other illness for which marijuana provides relief."

Maine's law, by contrast, allows medical pot only for eight specific
ailments, including cancer and AIDS, or "intractable pain." And users
are required to register with the state, unlike here.

In California, fewer than 13,000 marijuana patient ID cards were
issued in the past year. Yet Lauren Vasquez, a lawyer and pot
activist, says there are about 25,000 such patients just in the San Jose area.

. California law says "no physician in this state shall be punished
"... for having recommended marijuana to a patient for medical
purposes." While the Medical Board of California may suspend or
revoke a doctor's license for marijuana recommendations that violate
professional standards, only a dozen physicians have been disciplined
since the passage of Proposition 215. And most of them still practice
and give out marijuana recommendations, such as Dr. Hanya Barth of
San Francisco.

Barth, 65, said she looks to ensure marijuana use isn't masking a
serious condition. "You have to do that as a physician, just as you
would if you were giving Vicodin."

. California courts have yet to rule on whether the law even allows
the marijuana dispensaries that sell pot to anyone with a doctor's
note. More than 150 communities around the state have banned
dispensaries. But an appeals court weighing a challenge to such laws
in Anaheim sent it back to a lower court this year without answering
the key legal question.

Maine's law permits only eight state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

With California's legal landscape unsettled, all manner of marijuana
entrepreneurs are hanging shingles. San Jose's pot clubs range from
the spalike Harborside Health Center -- nestled in a tree-lined
corporate park and guarded by professional security -- to the stoner
stylings of Buddy's Cannabis, which sits next to a car stereo joint
on busy Stevens Creek Boulevard and is decorated with homemade, Bob
Marley-inspired art.

There's big money at stake. The state Board of Equalization estimates
receipts of up to $105 million in sales taxes last year from medical
marijuana sales. Total statewide sales are estimated to be as high as
$1.3 billion.

Steve DeAngelo, Harborside's executive director, laments that the
free-for-all attracts shady competitors who may finally be triggering
a backlash here from residents, cops and city officials.

Mayor Chuck Reed said he's well aware many medical marijuana users
aren't what most people would consider "medically needy." But, he
said, the city is "trying to have some controls" amid shifting
federal and state edicts.

In the face of all the legal loopholes, police in recent weeks have
started going after the clubs on grounds that offer more clarity --
such as violating the nonprofit requirement or delivering pot like
Chinese takeout, which police and prosecutors say is only legal in
certain circumstances.

Said Reed: "All the pot clubs, collectives, whatever they're called,
have to follow the law. That's one of the principles for how we
manage this chaos."