POT CLUB IN FAIRFAX CELEBRATES 10 YEARS

Marin County's only medical marijuana dispensary, Fairfax's Marin
Alliance, will celebrate its 10th anniversary Tuesday with a four-hour party.

Founder Lynnette Shaw said everyone is welcome to drop by for free
food, live music and information about medical marijuana. People will
be allowed to use marijuana, too.

But, she noted, "only if you're a member of the club."

Shaw, who lives in Fairfax, was a counselor at San Francisco's
largest pot club before starting her own clinic in Fairfax office
space originally rented as a Marin County campaign headquarters for
Proposition 215, which legalized the medical use of marijuana. The
measure got 86 percent of the vote in Fairfax.

Dozens of pot clubs opened after Proposition 215 passed in 1996 and
federal agents moved in to shut a number of them down in Oakland, San
Francisco and Santa Cruz. But somehow, Shaw's Fairfax clinic has
continued to operate.

The Fairfax Planning Commission in 1997 approved a use permit for the
clinic so the club can operate as a business in town, but the permit
came with 84 conditions - such as maintaining records of patients and
medicine, submitting regular financial audits, taking measures to
ensure the marijuana is not stolen, not selling to anyone under 18
and closing for business when baseball games are played at the Little
League field across the parking lot.

"It was groundbreaking," Shaw said.

Shaw is allowed to grow marijuana. But she said she doesn't want the
problems associated with that, and instead buys the product from
California growers, eliminating federal problems triggered by
transporting it across state lines.

"It's like a silent business," said Fairfax police Sgt. Chris Morin,
who has worked in town for seven years.

Annual receipts hit about $1 million a few years ago.

Morin said the club straightened out initial problems and now, "We
don't get any complaints about it."

Shaw attributes the club's success to the open-minded attitude in
Fairfax. In return, she said she has demonstrated that medical
marijuana clubs can be a productive part of a community.

"This is what I always envisioned," she said. "Marijuana peace has
been achieved in Marin."

Shaw doesn't have any plans to expand. But after President Bush
leaves office, she may consult for people who want to open clubs in
other parts of the country.

"I would like to help them regulate," she said.

FESTIVITIES

The Marin Alliance party takes place from 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday in
School Street Plaza, behind the Bank of America on Center Boulevard in Fairfax.