CAREGIVERS A MODEL FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING

As San Joaquin County officials work their way toward an ordinance
allowing for medical marijuana dispensaries, I hope they don't follow
the path of City of Stockton leaders, deciding to punish the people
who brought the need for them to the forefront and prompted them to
take action.

When the Stockton City Council finally grants three permits to those
wanting to operate medical marijuana dispensaries, Lynn Smith and the
rest of the Central Valley Caregivers Cooperative, formerly Pathways,
won't receive one.

The city, which went to court to close down Pathways after it opened
on Acacia Street with a business license to sell health foods,
supplements and herbal remedies, wrote into its ordinance a
stipulation that no one who had illegally operated such a business
would be granted a permit now.

Hopefully San Joaquin County, which is faced with Central Valley
Caregivers operating without a business license on county land, won't
be so retaliatory.

That hope doesn't stem from cooperative members conducting a coat
drive in January, gathering more than 1,200 coats for a local family
homeless shelter.

It's not even because Lynn Smith, the founder and director of the
group, seems genuinely sincere when he talks about his motivation to
help patients in need of medical marijuana.

Rather, the stories of the members themselves suggest that if you're
going to have these outlets in your community - which, by the way,
I'm in favor of - Central Valley Caregivers ought to be used as a model.

The manager of the operation, Roger, was hired by Smith to "run a
retail operation."

"I came in sight unseen," Roger said.

His belief in Smith, a businessman who most recently operated as a
contractor, prompted Roger to take the job, and he admits some
hesitation when he realized the herbal remedies included marijuana.

"After the second day we opened and I started seeing the patients, my
outlook changed 180 degrees," Roger said. "I'd recommend anybody come
and sit inside there and listen to the talks and discussions. It is
not at all what anybody would think."

Smith admits he questions whether some of the members need marijuana
to manage pain or other medical conditions. They receive it, though,
because they've obtained a letter of recommendation from their
physicians. Smith's staff verifies the authenticity of the letter,
and also checks to make sure the physician hasn't had a violation or
had his or her license revoked.

The majority of the members, though, are people like Lafayette, a
30-year-old who suffers from, among other conditions, scoliosis and
restrictive breathing.

He's undergone 27 surgeries in his life for a number of problems. He
started taking prescription medication at 5. By age 19, when he moved
back to California from Texas to undergo cranial surgery, he was up
to about 15 pills a day.

"Being on that much medication, people don't understand all the harm
that does to your body," said Lafayette, which is an alias he's
chosen for himself. "All those prescription drugs are like a wet
Band-Aid. They're a way to cope with the issue, but you never get any
better. What it does is break down your body, slowly but surely."

Lafayette began self-medicating with marijuana 10 years ago, and even
with low-grade pot sold on the street, the difference was significant.

"I was always in the hospital two to three times a year," Lafayette
said. "Somebody would cough and a couple days later I'm in the
hospital with pneumonia. I've only been in the hospital three times
in the last eight years."

Further, he said he wakes up and can get moving without the help of
his mom, and doesn't feel the constant pain he previously experienced.

Upon the election of Barack Obama, who halted the federal raids on
marijuana dispensaries in states that allowed them, Lafayette
obtained the recommendation from a physician to buy marijuana through
a medical dispensary.

"You know what you're getting is safe," Lafayette said. "You can get
anything offered to you on the street, but here, everything is
organic. There's no pesticides, no impurities."

Getting a safe product previously required a trip to Oakland or
Sacramento, the two closest cities that allow medical marijuana dispensaries.

Smith, 60 and semi-retired, said he just wanted to end those long commutes.

"We had a very close friend of the family, a friend of our children,
diagnosed with cancer," Smith said. "He was a blue-chip kid, smart,
friendly, a musician, an artist, went to Cal Poly. He finally
succumbed to cancer, and the last six months of his life he spent
half of his time going to Sacramento or Oakland for medication. I
said, 'This doesn't make sense. Quality of life has got to be worth
something. The last six months of life should not be wasted.'

"It was so unfair. A lot of people wanted to open a place (in
Stockton), but were leery for obvious reasons. I said, 'Wow, I'm 60
years old. There's not a lot they can do to me.' I decided to jump in
and give it a go."

The not-for-profit venture has cost thousands of dollars in court
costs and attorney fees, but Smith has gained something, too.

He's found he has compassion he never knew existed. His wife works
with the disabled, his daughter's a nurse and his son a veterinarian.
He didn't know he had that caring for others in him, but when the
city closed Pathways, he found he couldn't turn his back on the co-op
members he says number about 5,000.

"Our members were devastated," Smith said. "Two went out on the
street to buy it and were accosted and robbed. I thought, 'I just
can't do this.' I feel responsible."

He opened a place on county land, and awaits the arrival of an
ordinance ending the moratorium against businesses such as his that now exists.

The county could, like the city, freeze him out when it begins to
allow dispensaries. It seems a shame, though, that the first person
to recognize the need for such a business would be the first to be
erased from the picture.