DR. FRY LOSES HER PRESCRIPTION PRIVILEGES

The good news in the life of Marian "Mollie" Fry, MD, is that December '02
marked the five-year anniversary of her breast-cancer surgery.

Also, her three kids (ages 15, 12 and 10) and the two she helped raise
(husband Dale Schafer's from a previous marriage, now 26 and 25) are
healthy, intelligent and generally "together." The bad news follows.

On December [?], Doctor Fry received a letter from the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration revoking her prescription-writing privileges.
And last week a message on Shafer's answering machine said the California
Medical Board had forwarded several of Fry's cases to Attorney General Bill
Lockyer for possible criminal prosecution.

Fry, 46, is one of the dozen or so California doctors who have been liberal
in recommending cannabis to patients with medical conditions less severe
than AIDS or cancer. More than 80% of the approximately 7,000 patients she
has seen since 1996 use it to relieve physical pain. Another 15% use it for
psychological pain.

Dr. Fry herself has used cannabis for chemo-induced nausea, depression,
PTSD, and insomnia.

She discovered its anti-depressant effects at age 13, soon after her mom a
research physician who'd stayed home to raise her kids died at age 42.

Mollie Fry graduated from Western Washington University in 1980 and from UC
Irvine School of Medicine in 1985. After an internship at UC Davis she
became a family practitioner in Lodi, where she supervised two physicians'
assistants. The California medical board did not look askance on this
approach, which maximizes the number of patients whose care a doctor can
oversee.

In '88 Dale accepted a lucrative job with a San Diego
medical-malpractice-defense firm. Mollie decided that her own kids needed
her; she stopped practicing in '89 and became a home-schooler. Dale
developed misgivings about his firm's ethics and in '93 the family moved to
El Dorado County where he entered the workers' comp field.

In '96 they bought a big, old house in Greenwood on 26 acres.

After Prop 215 passed, Mollie realized she could be of service having used
cannabis herself for various purposes and understanding its range of
effects to the many Californians who would now be seeking professional
guidance in using cannabis. She resumed seeing patients (employing a
physician's assistant to handle the initial interview) and Dale established
an adjoining practice to advise them of their rights under California's
Health & Safety Code section 11362.5.

Also in this period Mollie became convinced that she herself had breast
cancer. Several specialists found nothing. "I told them that something was
wrong I actually knew I had breast cancer and they said 'You're depressed'
and offered me Prozac and Paxil, which put me in such a fog that I could
hardly express myself properly." She stopped using the pharmaceuticals when
she developed severe hypertension (a fairly common side-effect), relying
only on cannabis.

Mollie says if she'd stayed on conventional anti-depressants she would not
have had the clarity or forcefulness to insist on an exploratory procedure
which revealed a malignancy that had spread to three lymph nodes. Her
breasts were removed Dec. 17, 1997.

Mollie Fry and Dale Schafer got their first visit from law enforcement two
uniformed El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies in the summer of '99. At the
time there were six plants in the garden. Mollie said she was willing to
help the officers "identify those people who are truly ill from those
people who belong in jail for dealing drugs.' They said, 'Dr. Fry, write
notes.' I shook their hands, they left my house."

Mollie feels her early paperwork may have been lax because she was so
convinced of the benignity of cannabis. "I used common sense.

When I used to prescribe drugs to people out of the PDR I would always go
over the side-effects and possible long-term complications because they
could be so dangerous. Cannabis is so much safer than Tylenol, which is
sold over-the-counter And most of my patients were using it to get off
much more dangerous drugs, like Prozac and alcohol, or to cut down on opiates.

I had spoken to Tod [Mikuriya], and really saw eye-to-eye with him.

"After I got called into court [to confirm and defend her recommendation of
cannabis for a given patient] about four or five times, I figured out how
to tighten my records.

Now I have a procedure that is so locked-down they come in with their
records, if possible; they fill out a complete questionnaire; they sign a
release for me to use the information in research; and they confirm under
penalty of perjury that they're not lying. They watch a film in which Dale
reads the elements of the statute and I speak about the right to determine
the best course of treatment, which means the right to consider all the
options. Then they see Dale for at least 20 minutes, then they come to me.

"I often find that pain patients are suffering from severe over or
under-medication. I tell them 'You need to go back to your doctor, you
need to talk to them about this, suggest that they reduce this or that. I
see a lot of doube anti-depressants, people taking Wellbutrin and Paxil. A
lot of people taking 10 to 12 Vicodin a day, which is too much Tylenol
[acetomenaphine being a co-ingredient] I focus on their health and their
habits. And of course I touch the part that hurts and try to figure out why
it does. And I document it in the charts."

Fry only orders procedures such as blood tests and x-rays when a patient
refuses to see a primary-care doctor. "There are some crusty old men who
are making a conscious choice to die rather than be subjected to certain
things. I don't think they should go to jail. With them I ask 'What hurts
most?' They'll say, 'Well, doc, it's gotta be this right hip.' I'll ask,
'Will you let me order an x-ray for just that hip? Because we know it's
gonna show arthritis.' And they usually go 'Sure.' For people who
refuse, I can document that I wanted them to get a doctor; and they qualify
[for a cannabis approval] based on the x-ray, which will be read by a
second physician.

"A lot of people say to me, 'Dr. Fry, since I've been using marijuana, I
don't need those pills.

I don't want to go back to that stupid doctor.' I say, 'I'm sorry, that may
be good medicine, but it's not good legal practice. You need to go back to
the doctor at least every couple of years and report that you're still
having' whatever problems they're complaining of."

By the start of '00 Mollie and Dale were beginning to feel confident that
their medical/legal practices were appropriate under Prop 215. (The
sheriff's deputies had returned before the '99 harvest and told Dale he was
a good grower.) They leased space in Oakland and Lake Tahoe to conduct
one-day-a-week clinics at which they would typically see 15-20 patients.

On one occasion Mollie approached Attorney General Bill Lockyer at a VFW
fundraiser and told him what she was doing. "The people who could most
benefit from the implementation of Prop 215 are veterans," she noted, "Vets
with purple hearts." According to Mollie, 'Bill Lockyer said 'Okay, go for
it, but be low-key.' He said something to imply, not that I should hide but
that I should be discreet.

Maybe that was the word he used. But the problem was, by now I had staff
and office rents, and how do you let patients know that you're available
without advertising?"

Fry was charging $100 an initial visit and $40 for a re-certifaction.
Patients on social security or welfare received discounts. "A lot of money
flowed through the business," says Mollie, "but it all went out to staff."
Dale and physician's assistant Rob Poseley employed a receptionist and a
file clerk. Mollie had a personal secretary working with her on three book
projects one on medical marijuana, one on surviving cancer, and one for
children. She also employed "a full-time medical-records officer dealing
with paperwork.

The clubs tend to be very demanding, which creates a whole 'nother layer of
paperwork that no other doctor has to pay for. Then I had a data-entry
person putting all our patients's records into the computer for research
purposes.

The government [DEA] got all our computers [in a subsequent raid]."

In the spring of '00 the El Dorado county sheriff's investigators returned
to the Fry-Schafer residence asking questions on behalf of the DEA about a
former employee named Paul Magge. "They left and it seemed like no big
deal," Mollie recalls. "We harvested, I had enough medicine, Dale was
making concentrates for me, I was feeling better, we had a staff we could
trust. We decided to contact Bill Lockyer again and confirm that we were
on the right track." Dale arranged a meeting with Dave De Alba, the senior
assistant AG whom Lockyer had put in charge of Prop-215 matters. "Dave told
us to stay the hell away from Tod. That Tod is targeted, and that Tod is a
problem. We ignored that, of course, because we like and respect Tod. " De
Alba also arranged a meeting at which representatives of the Medical Board
provided Schafer with practice guidelines. Fry reviewed them and felt she
already was abiding by them.

In July of 2001 Dale Schafer announced that he was running for District
Attorney of El Dorado County. That September he and Mollie were raided by
the DEA a raid they think DA Gary Lacy may have initiated with a call to
the feds. (Shafer would finish third with 15% of the vote.) Mollie recalls
the raid: "I was going to bed with a migraine headache and they came
running up my driveway with their guns in their riot uniforms.

I opened my arms and said, 'I entirely submit. You are welcome in my home.' And they still forced me to the ground and handcuffed me for two hours.

My hands turned white.

I was so cold, my hands were shaking. So they moved me into the trailer.

Then I had to change our granddaughter's shitty diaper while in handcuffs.

I couldn't quite wipe. I said to the agent, 'It's so hard having five
children and a baby to take care of and cancer ' And she looked at me and
said, 'You have cancer?' And I go, 'Of course I have cancer, why the hell
do you think I'm doing this!

"Not even the staff that raided me and was abusing me knew the truth."