POT, PAIN AND POLITICS

L.B. Cannabis Clubs Operate Under A Cloud Of Uncertainty.

LONG BEACH -- It has all the markings of a doctor's office.

A tastefully decorated waiting room offers patients a place to sit
and peruse Hollywood-gossip magazines. A receptionist peeks through
an arched window to verify medical information on a computer. And,
one by one, patients are called into a back room to pick up their medicine.

But at Compassionate Caregivers Long Beach, there are no doctors. Nor
are there exam tables, stethoscopes or bandages.

Just marijuana and lots of it.

Operating on Fourth Street near Ximeno Avenue in Belmont Heights,
Compassionate Caregivers Long Beach, or CCLB, is one of two Long
Beach cannabis clubs set up to dispense marijuana under Prop 215, the
1996 initiative legalizing to medical marijuana in California.

CCLB has been open for business for more than six months and touts
itself as a members-only, nonprofit organization helping patients who
have legitimate doctor's notes to take the drug. The other club,
Cancer Help Center Herbal Collective, opened some three months ago
near Long Beach Boulevard and Wardlow Road.

Both clubs are taking significant risks by opening here.

Not only has the federal government made clear its position against
such clubs and the use of medical marijuana in general but the city,
too, has issued a temporary moratorium on retail medical-marijuana sales.

The moratorium was put into place in April, when the Long Beach City
Council decided to review the possibility of creating a zoning
ordinance allowing such businesses to operate within set guidelines.
But last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Gonzalez v. Raich,
which reaffirmed the federal government's tough stance against the
drug, has officials back-pedaling. As a result, the proposed
ordinance has been put on hold indefinitely.

"There's a lot of confusion and angst," Long Beach Assistant City
Attorney Michael Mais said. "After the Supreme Court decision, we're
trying to take a little of a wait-and-see (position)."

What's more, not everyone agrees the clubs are catering only to
legitimate patients.

Long Beach Police Chief Tony Batts told the City Council in April
that two outside police agencies had investigated CCLB on their own,
and that one agency had allegedly found evidence that the club was
dispensing marijuana to nonpatients.

But Batts has opted not to open investigations into the local clubs
until the city's ordinance has been established.

Only then, he said, can officers ensure that clubs are operating
within city guidelines.

Self-regulation Long Beach's cannabis clubs are two of only a handful
in Los Angeles County. Most operate in West Hollywood, where the city
has actively supported Prop 215, said Bill Britt, a local advocate
for marijuana patients who spoke as a community liaison for both
clubs but stressed that he was involved merely as an outside adviser.
Club directors declined to be interviewed.

While Long Beach's cannabis clubs may not be formally regulated yet,
Britt said, they're doing the best they can to regulate themselves.

Every person who obtains marijuana from a local club must have a
medical necessity, Britt said. Doctors' notes must be original
documents, not photocopies, and verified through their offices, he said.

Because only a handful of Southern California physicians, including
one in Long Beach, regularly recommend marijuana, club operators look
especially close at notes from unknown doctors, Britt said.

Once a note has been verified, the patient's information is entered
into a computer and becomes a member of the club.

Sometimes doctors specify how much marijuana is needed to treat an
ailment in the span of a year, so the club can monitor consumption.
Eight ounces is a common standard, Britt said, but some patients
consume several pounds a year.

After a year, a new doctor's note is required to renew club membership.

Patients are then taken into a back room and given a marijuana
"menu," Britt said. Varying in both potency and price, different
types of pot can be obtained in leaf or concentrated forms, and
sometimes are placed in opaque medicine bottles to maintain
freshness. Pot is also cooked into brownies and cookies, or infused
with peanut butter and olive oil for patients who cannot smoke, or
prefer not to, Britt said.

"One (West Hollywood) club even had a pizza, a marijuana pizza," he said.

Sources varied The pot comes from a variety of sources, Britt said.
Some members grow it, but that's rarely enough, so club directors
turn to underground medical-marijuana vendors or growers in Northern
California, where clubs are far more plentiful.

Most people learn of the clubs through word-of-mouth, and the vast
majority of visitors are legitimate patients, Britt said.

But every club gets its fair share of people up to a few a day who
must be turned away, he said. "People don't realize this isn't a
pharmacy," he said. "These people could be arrested at any time.
They're risking their lives, and their families' lives, and their
livelihoods and their life savings, because they believe in this."

The biggest misconception, Britt said, is that co-ops are "just a
bunch of hippies walking in and smoking pot."

But he said that people who obtain marijuana at CCLB and the Herbal
Collective are those suffering from chronic pain and illness,
including cancer, arthritis, muscle spasms, nerve pain, nausea,
insomnia and glaucoma.

Hippies, Britt said, can get their pot on the street.

"By stopping this," he said, "the only people they are stopping are
sick people people who are dying."

Despite the fact that Prop 215 has been around nearly a decade, the
state still lacks uniform regulations for dispensing medical pot.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who supports the law, has offered
little guidance.

"The way the law was written, it's up to local governments to work
with medicinal users and dispensaries to come up with a system that
works at the local level," Lockyer spokeswoman Teresa Schilling said.
"I don't believe that there are any plans to say anything new."

While jurisdictions in the liberal San Francisco Bay area have
exercised leniency in adopting Prop 215 policies, more conservative
cities continue to arrest and prosecute medical users for illegal
drug possession.

For years in Long Beach, police officers arrested marijuana users and
let the courts sort out the validity of doctors' notes. But, under
pressure from local activists, Police Chief Batts changed that policy
last summer. Now, officers are directed to investigate the validity
of doctors' notes before seizing drugs or making arrests.

Britt said the chief's position has had a profound effect. So far, no
more patients have been arrested.

"The police chief has done a good job of educating his officers and
protecting patients' rights," Britt said.

Mais said the city's position on issuing an ordinance is sticky,
especially with the Raich ruling.

Clear peril The ruling, handed down in June, did not overturn
Proposition 215, but it made clear that patients who use pot run the
risk of legal action by federal authorities.

Mais said he worried that regulating cannabis clubs in Long Beach
could turn federal agents against the city.

"There is concern that the feds will bring sort of injunctive action
or RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) action
against the cities that are blatantly violating federal law," he said.

Without Lockyer's guidance, Mais said, cities that pass ordinances
might invite a proliferation of cannabis clubs, while cities that
treat club owners as criminals might drive clubs into other areas.
And it might also give clubs, and patients, a false sense of security.

Britt said he believes Mais' concerns are misplaced. He said the
Supreme Court decision should have no bearing on the proposed local
ordinance because nothing has changed.

"We never had federal protection," he said, adding that local
cannabis clubs operate at their own risk, and will continue to do so.

"Part of the guidelines," Britt said, "will be provisions in there
saying, 'If you choose to do this, we cannot offer protection against
federal (prosecution)."

Still, many city officials sympathize with Mais' position, including
Jim Goodin, a business services officer in the Department of
Financial Management.

His department issues business licenses, and would be in charge of
licensing cannabis clubs if the City Council approves the ordinance.

They're "having a heck of a time trying to figure out the federal law
and the state law and how the city treads the line between these two
things," he said.