POT USE BRINGS RED TAPE

User Of Medical Marijuana Can't Regain His Driver's License

Eleven years ago, Clarence Johnson was convicted of drunken driving.

It was his last rub with the law, he said, and he hasn't had a driver's
license since.

Now, to help his wife's business, he's trying to get behind the wheel
again. The state Department of Motor Vehicles first requires counseling so
he started the 18-month program last spring with Community Recovery
Resources in Grass Valley.

His problems began early on, he said, after he disclosed that he had a
medical marijuana recommendation. He smokes at least a joint a day, usually
before bed, to combat back pain, arthritis and pain from a crushed ankle.

At 60, the former machinist is a sinewy figure with salted hair and tinted
glasses. On the porch of his Grass Valley-area home, he smoked - cigarettes
- - and gestured with meaty fingers as he described what he called persecution.

"Well, yeah, I do cannabis," he recalled telling workers at CRR, formerly
Nevada County Substance Abuse Treatment and Recovery.

"And they kicked me out - 'We don't need you here.'"

Johnson and his wife, Lynda, an upholstery business owner, accuse the
agency and its executive director, Warren Daniels, of breaking the law.
Among less than a handful of CRR clients in a similar predicament, they've
taken the issue to lawmakers and state officials.

It turns out Nevada County is California's only county with such a dispute,
according to the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

Daniels says he's only looking out for the sobriety of his roughly 480
clients who take driving-under-the-influence classes in Grass Valley and
Truckee.

He supports "the spirit" of the Compassionate Use Act, which California
voters passed in 1996. It's his personal view that drugs should be
legalized so they can be regulated.

But the unpredictability of marijuana dosages concern him, he said.
Different pot plants yield different levels of THC, the active drug in
marijuana. Without known dosages, he said, he can't gauge a client's
cognitive skills or progress in recovery.

"If a doctor were to say, 'One joint of marijuana every four hours,' one
joint every four hours of what?" he said.

CRR adopted its policy in July, after a discussion among counselors.

"One of my clinicians said, 'Half my group is on medical marijuana, and
it's totally screwing up the group,'" Daniels said.

The apparent referee in this matter, the state Department of Alcohol and
Drug Programs, said the matter is under review. A policy decision could be
reached this month.

"This has become an issue recently, and it's a complex issue," said Les
Johnson, acting deputy director.

Meanwhile, Clarence Johnson mostly stays home.

He could have completed four or five months of classes by now, he said, if
he'd only lied on the CRR questionnaire. The treatment center gave him the
option of taking a prescribed pain reliever, an offer he rejected.

"I don't like taking pills. I kind of worry about my liver and stuff. It's
not good for your system," he said.

He shrugged off his cigarette habit. "You're only going to live as long as
you live. I'm not afraid of death," Johnson said.

After getting nowhere in their battle with CRR, the Johnsons called Penn
Valley-area marijuana activist Martin Webb.

Webb accused Daniels of making policy without any medical expertise. "He's
either not up on the research, or he's willfully ignorant of the facts," he
said.

The two are scheduled to debate at noon today on KVMR-FM radio. They've
never met before, but Webb's claims hinge largely on correspondence between
Daniels and the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

In July, the agency told Daniels to begin admitting legal marijuana users
so long as they remain attentive. The department also told CRR it was out
of compliance with state regulations.

Daniels wrote back, saying CRR would ignore the letter, pending further
consideration. He also sent a copy to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, a
move scorned by Webb.

The DEA's inclusion, Webb said, suggests Daniels is seeking leverage from
federal law, which doesn't recognize marijuana for medicinal use. The state
Supreme Court, however, recently took an opposite view.

"He obviously feels this is something the community cannot resolve, and he
is going outside the community," Webb said.

Replied Daniels: "I'm willing to use whatever avenue I can to get somebody
to listen to me. As it turned out, I did get somebody to listen to me."

Webb also accused Daniels of lacking medical expertise to make such policy
and scrutinized his claim that marijuana is a hallucinogen.

In response, Daniels said he smoked marijuana for 27 years before turning
sober, and he's since earned a college degree and numerous certificates in
counseling.

Quietly watching this debate is the county Department of Behavioral Health
Services. The department doesn't fund CRR's DUI program and isn't a program
regulator, but it does designate the agency that handles the program.

"Certainly it's open to interpretation," said Doug Bond, Behavioral Health
program chief. "You have federal law versus state law."