POT CLUB OR POT BUSINESS?

Federal Prosecutor Says It's Illegal Drug Sales

A man with a few bucks in his pocket walks into Curtis Shimmin's new
Eugene enterprise and leaves a short time later carrying a brown paper
bag filled with marijuana.

This is clearly an illegal drug deal, U.S. Attorney for Oregon Dwight
Holton says.

But Shimmin - who sought advice from his own attorneys before opening
Kannabosm in a rented commercial space at 401 W. 11th Ave. - begs to
differ.

He insists that he's not in the business of selling pot to dope
users.

Rather, he's providing medicine to state-registered medical marijuana
patients who pay him to "reimburse" the growers whose green buds are
listed on Kannabosm's "strain menu."

"I know that in my heart that I'm doing the right thing and the legal
thing," Shimmin said. "We don't sell anything here."

Kannabosm is among dozens of medical marijuana "clubs" to open in
Oregon since last November, when 58 percent of state voters rejected a
ballot measure that would have authorized nonprofit groups to set up
state-regulated medical pot dispensaries.

"That's what I find stunning about this," Holton said of the explosion
of operations such as Shimmin's in the wake of ballot Measure 74's
defeat.

"It's undemocratic," Holton said. "We voted on (dispensaries) and said
'no.' "

Kannabosm opened in early June, right around the same time that Holton
issued a letter that formally notified medical pot club owners that it
is illegal under both state and federal law to sell marijuana for any
purpose - including as medicine.

Lane County District Attorney Alex Gardner was one of 34 DAs from
around the state to sign the notice - but he said that until this
week, he hadn't heard of Kannabosm.

Eugene police, meanwhile, are aware of Shimmin's club. "We have had
citizen inquiries" about it, police spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin
said. "But we haven't had time to look into it" and determine if it is
operating legally, she said.

Oregon's medical marijuana program and laws are rife with amgibuities,
and it's unclear whether many local authorities in the state are
interested in trying to shut down outlets such as Kannabosm.

In the meantime, the clubs are attracting plenty of
visitors.

More than 250 Oregon medical marijuana cardholders are now paying
Kannabosm a $20 monthly club membership fee that gives them
over-the--counter access to the drug that they say works best to ease
their pain.

Shimmin said the number of club members is rising steadily, and that
he hopes to have 800 signed up eventually.

"Like a blessing"

Oakridge resident Tony Bard said he worked in maintenance at Madras
High School before a spinal condition forced him to retire in 2009.

Doctors gave him morphine and other opiates, but he couldn't function
very well on those drugs, Bard said.

He found a doctor who was willing to recommend that he take marijuana
for his ailment, and he became a state-registered patient. But then he
had to find a dependable way to get the drug, and he quickly
discovered that growing pot was no easy task.

So Bard, 48, found someone else to grow for him under state law, which
allows the grower to charge the user only for the costs of growing the
drug, and not to make a profit. He said that grower "ripped him off"
by selling his marijuana elsewhere, and the same thing happened when
he found a second grower.

Bard then took to purchasing weed from street dealers, which he said
never appealed to him.

He heard in June that Kannabosm had opened in Eugene and decided to
pay a visit.

"It's been like a blessing for me," Bard said.

Bard and another Kannabosm club member, 36-year-old Creswell resident
Eric Chavez, both said the marijuana available at Shimmin's enterprise
is high-quality and low-priced.

Another thing that impressed Chavez - who said he gained his medical
marijuana card three years ago after being diagnosed with headaches
and stomach problems - was the professional atmosphere inside Kannabosm.

"Before I went in, I expected it would feel more like a head shop,"
Chavez said. "I was glad to see that they didn't have pot leaf posters
hanging everywhere."

About helping people

Shimmin said he decided to open Kannabosm because he figured that most
medical marijuana cardholders "were accessing (pot) on the black
market, and would access it this way if they could."

More than 5,100 Lane County residents are patients of the Oregon
medical marijuana program.

Shimmin, a longtime marijuana user and state-registered patient and
grower, said his primary aim is to provide high-quality medicine to
people with serious health problems.

"It's about helping people who are really in need of help," he
said.

Shimmin, 53, knows that Oregon's medical marijuana program has critics
who contend that many so-called "patients" are simply stoners who pay
big bucks to find a pro-pot doctor willing to help them sign up for a
state-registered card, thus giving them a license to smoke weed
recreationally.

But he claims that type of person isn't the typical Kannabosm club
member.

"I would say that 99 percent of our club members are for-real,
chronic-issue patients," Shimmin said. "I have eight stage-4 cancer
patients and 14 Crohn's (disease) patients. Honestly, I didn't know
that it would be this way. But it makes me so happy that it is."

Shimmin said he is one of about 10 medical--pot growers in Lane County
whose marijuana is on the menu at Kannabosm.

Legal opinions vary

Shimmin argues that in his and his attorneys' views, the transactions
that take place in Kannabosm are not technically sales, and therefore
are not illegal.

Here's how it works: After paying their club membership fee, a club
member visits Kannabosm's back room, chooses the marijuana that he or
she wants to use for medical purposes and gives cash to one of
Shimmin's employees.

The money works to reimburse a grower for supplies and electricity
used to produce the buds. In return, growers return a "small amount"
of cash to the club for "storage and handling," Shimmin said.

State law allows a medical marijuana patient to reimburse a grower for
production costs. Patients may give excess medical marijuana to
another cardholder.

Shimmin said that all of the marijuana available at Kannabosm is
"excess" - that is, it's pot that growers are left with after their
patients take what they need. By allowing their growers to pass along
marijuana to the club, patients are essentially giving it to other
cardholders, he said.

Chavez, the Creswell man, said he pays $10 per gram for what he
considers to be high-grade pot. That arrangement sounds more than a
little fishy to U.S. Attorney Holton.

"It is indisputably illegal," Holton said of any deal in which cash is
essentially exchanged for marijuana.

Clubs put on notice

Holton said a number of "dispensaries" shut themselves down after his
office in June warned people in charge of those places that they were
violating the law.

Steve Geiger said his landlord forced him to close his nonprofit
dispensary in southeast Portland after Holton issued his letter.
Geiger said his operation collected "donations" from patients who used
marijuana that he and others affiliated with his group grew themselves.

So far, the only pot club to be shut down by law enforcement this year
is the former Wake n Bake Cannabis Lounge, an Aloha operation that was
raided by Washington County narcotics detectives in June.

Holton said the notice sent out by his office is "a first step" in
addressing the issue. He declined to say what the next move might be.

"We're not trying to play 'gotcha' with anybody here," Holton said.
"We want everyone to know that it's illegal."

That includes landlords, who could face civil and criminal penalties
for allowing a marijuana dispensary to operate on their property,
Holton said.

The space that Shimmin is leasing is owned by Eugene developers John
Hammer and Roscoe Divine. Hammer declined to comment about the
arrangement with Kannabosm, and Divine did not return messages left at
his office.

Another ballot proposal?

John Sajo, a Douglas County resident who coauthored the medical pot
dispensary measure that failed last November, said that because the
state law is unclear, the question of whether Kannabosm or any other
dispensary-style outlet is legal falls into a "gray area." The
murkiness will remain unless law enforcement agencies in Oregon decide
to crack down and gain criminal convictions against business owners,
he said.

But Sajo doesn't see that happening, because many local police and
district attorneys' offices "don't have the resources for that kind of
thing."

Meanwhile, Sajo is part of a group that hopes to again ask Oregon
voters in 2012 to approve a state-regulated medical marijuana
dispensary system.

"This isn't an issue that's just going to go away," he said.
"Clear-cut rules would be better for everybody, but we don't have that
yet."