POT SCARCITY PEEVES PATIENTS

A MYSTERIOUS marijuana shortage in New York has gotten so bad that local
medicinal pot groups are begging for an emergency supply of reefer from
out-of-state sources.

According to a board member of the New York City Medical Marijuana Buyers
Club, the shortage has gotten so desperate that two cancer patients
undergoing chemotherapy have had to be re-hospitalized because they ran out
of the weed.

"There's almost no pot around at all. None," the source tells PAGE SIX's
Ian Spiegelman. "There is a very small amount of hydroponically grown
marijuana available, but it's incredibly expensive."

Ultra-potent hydroponic pot runs about $400 an ounce. More common
commercial blends cost a mere $100 to $150 per ounce.

The medical marijuana club represents about 150 severely ill people who
treat their symptoms with cannabis - which is still illegal in New York
State, even for terminal cases. The typical patient uses about two ounces a
month, and cannot afford the price of the luxury bud. "We sell it at cost,
but the stuff that's around now is too expensive even at cost," a club
member said.

Club members are reaching out across the U.S. "We're e-mailing other
buyers' clubs, requesting that because of the emergency situation people
come and donate small amounts."

The lack of herb has been attributed to everything from the arrest of 25
corrupt officials in Mexico last week to heightened security on East Coast
highways until the sniper case arrests. "Because of all the police
activity, people do not want to come up the Interstate with large
quantities of marijuana," says the source. "They're too scared."

And New Yorkers just lost out on a botanical bonanza yesterday when two men
in upstate Herkimer were busted for possession of 150 pounds of the
forbidden weed.

The shortage appears to be strictly local. Keith Stroup, executive director
of the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws, says, "I buy marijuana regularly and I haven't had any
problems."

Will the city's potheads really have to pack up and move to Humbolt County?
Fred Gieger, unit head at the DEA's New York field office, says, "We have
no indication that there is any marijuana shortage."

The NYC Medical Marijuana Buyers Club plans to hold a rally at City Hall on
Halloween, in honor of club member "Uncle Donny," who died last week of
kidney failure that had nothing to do with his smoke intake.