SAN FRANCISCO RESISTS MEDICAL MARIJUANA RAIDS

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration touched off a firestorm of
protest in San Francisco this week when DEA agents raided a medical
marijuana club and arrested three medical marijuana activists. An
arrest warrant has been issued for a fourth activist who is currently
in Canada and may seek political asylum there if the U.S. attempts to
extradite him.

The arrests underscore the ongoing conflict between federal and state
laws which regulate medical marijuana in the U.S. The federal
Controlled Substances Act prohibits the growing and consumption of
marijuana. But California's Compassionate Use Act (Proposition 215)
permits seriously ill patients to consume marijuana for medical
purposes and allows marijuana plants to be grown for medicinal use.
Eight U.S. states have passed medical marijuana laws.

The San Francisco DEA operation took place on Feb. 12, the same day as
President George W. Bush unveiled his administration's new anti-drug
strategy aimed at cutting use of illegal drugs by 10 percent over two
years and 25 percent over five years. Top DEA official Asa Hutchinson
was heckled by audience members when he outlined the government's
anti-drug agenda during a speech in San Francisco later that evening.

San Francisco has declared itself a sanctuary for patients who use
marijuana to treat the symptoms of serious ailments such as glaucoma,
AIDS and cancer. Hutchinson was condemned by city officials and San
Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, who supports medical
cannabis. "The voters should be outraged," Hallinan told a crowd of
chanting protesters gathered outside the hall where Hutchinson spoke.
"This is the federal government trying to make a point in opposition
to the voters of California."

The raided medical marijuana club, known as the "Harm Reduction
Center," is one of approximately 30 such clubs in the San Francisco
Bay Area, which is the center of the medical marijuana movement in the
U.S. A temporary injunction against another Bay Area club, the Oakland
Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative (OCBC), was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme
Court last year. The court determined that the club could not use a
"medical necessity defense," but it chose not to address
constitutional issues. Robert Raich, an attorney for the OCBC, has
filed a motion in U.S. District Court to dissolve or modify the
preliminary injunction against the club based partly on a federalist
interpretation of states rights.

San Francisco city supervisor Mark Leno said he spoke with Hutchinson
the day after the arrests and expressed his concern about the DEA
operation. Leno says he is authoring a resolution to put before the
board of supervisors on Feb. 18 urging the DEA to reconsider their
action and "refamiliarize" themselves with the city's medical cannabis
identification card program. He says the government should focus on
the more serious problems of heroin, cocaine and crack instead of
targeting medical marijuana.

"I believe this to be a direct assault on the public health of San
Francisco as well as a direct assault on the voters of California, who
by nearly 70 percent approved Prop. 215 in 1996, allowing for the
compassionate use of medical cannabis," said Leno. "Our city,
including the board of supervisors, mayor, city attorney, district
attorney and law enforcement will continue to support the right of
every patient to safe and affordable medical cannabis."

Hutchinson told his San Francisco audience that the DEA is compelled
to follow federal drug laws which are set by Congress. Richard Meyer,
a spokesperson for the DEA San Francisco Field Division, noted that
under the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is classified as a
Schedule One substance with no medicinal value and high potential for
abuse. Meyer said the investigation did not initially target the
marijuana clubs, but was focused on marijuana trafficking and smuggling.

The Harm Reduction Center, which has been closed, was one of eight
locations in the San Francisco Bay Area that was searched on Feb. 12.
Meyer said 8,135 marijuana plants were seized from the sites.
Computers were also taken from the club, but Meyer said no patient
records were removed.

The Rev. Lynnette Shaw, founder and owner of a Bay Area medical
marijuana club called the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, says
she is concerned about her club being raided by federal authorities.
"This is an abhorrent violation of our civil rights in America," said
Shaw. "This is not just about four people sitting in jail, this is
about a thousand patients today who have no medicine and they will
just get sicker."

In affidavits in support of the search warrants, DEA agents allege
that Kenneth Hayes, who operates the Harm Reduction Center, heads an
organization that cultivates and distributes large quantities of
marijuana, imports and distributes marijuana from Canada, and launders
drug proceeds in the U.S. and Canada. According to the affidavit, an
informant claimed to be selling marijuana from British Columbia to the
club. A second informer alleged that the club was selling to
non-patients and allegedly purchased marijuana from club employee
Richard Watts at Watts' home using DEA funds. The same informer
allegedly returned to the club to buy more marijuana and 400 young
plants from Hayes.

Hayes and Watts, the son of philosopher Alan Watts, were both charged
with two counts of cultivating more than 100 marijuana plants after
DEA agents found over 600 plants growing in the club. The charges
carry a maximum penalties of 40 years in jail and $2 million in fines.
They were also charged with a third count of maintaining a place for
the purpose of cultivating marijuana, for which they could face 20
years in jail and a $500,000 fine.

Edward Rosenthal, author of the Marijuana Growers Handbook, was also
charged with cultivating more than 100 marijuana plants and
maintaining a marijuana cultivation site in Oakland, CA. He faces
similar penalties. The DEA claims that Rosenthal produces marijuana
for Hayes and Watts. "The Controlled Substances Act, which was passed
in the 1970's, was based on judgment and information ... that is
thirty years old," said Rosenthal's wife, Jane Klein, at his bond
hearing. "We need laws that are based on current research."

In a separate complaint, James Halloran of Oakland was charged with
one count of cultivating more than 1,000 marijuana plants, which
carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a $4 million dollar
fine. He also faces another count of maintaining a place to
manufacture marijuana. According to the affidavit, Halloran came to
the attention of authorities after a paid DEA source pointed agents to
his cultivation site in Oakland.

It is unclear whether any of the defendants are medical marijuana
caregivers who are permitted to grow for patients under California
state law. The DEA alleges that it received a complaint from a patient
and a medical marijuana dispenser named Father Nazarin that the Harm
Reduction Center was selling marijuana out the back door to
non-patients. The DEA also alleged that one of its agents was able to
get a medical marijuana recommendation from a San Francisco doctor
without showing a prescription or medication for his condition. OCBC
attorney Robert Raich notes that if clubs were found to be importing
cannabis from Canada, it would undermine a possible Commerce Clause
argument which asserts that Congress has no power to prohibit the
production and sale of medical marijuana inside California.

Watts is still in custody. Rosenthal and Halloran both posted a
$500,000 bond on Feb. 13 and have been released. Hayes was arrested in
Canada on Jan. 12, after he allegedly chartered a small plane to land
in a remote airfield south of Vancouver with $13,000 in U.S. currency
hidden in his clothes. According to the DEA, he was held by the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police, which conducted thermal imaging of his
Vancouver residence to detect cannabis cultivation. The DEA says he
was deported by Canadian immigration to the U.S. Customs Service to
face a pending U.S. arrest warrant.

But his Canadian lawyer, John Conroy, says Hayes was charged on Feb.
12 with one count of production of marijuana under Canadian law.
Conroy says Hayes, who uses medical marijuana for a chronic pain
condition, was interviewed by Canadian immigration authorities and
released without bail for a six-month visitor's stay. The case may
take up to a year to settle during which time Conroy can remain in
Canada. If Hayes is found to have been cultivating marijuana for his
own medical purposes or for a "compassion club," Conroy said he would
likely get an "absolute discharge," in which his conviction would be
overturned and purged from police records.

Conroy said Hayes initially intended to apply for political asylum,
but U.S. authorities have yet to request his extradition. If an
extradition warrant is served, Conroy says his client will seek bail,
await an extradition hearing, and plead his case all the way up to the
Supreme Court of Canada. The San Francisco U.S. Attorney's Office,
which has until March 5 to indict the defendants, would not comment on
whether they would seek to extradite Hayes.

"At any time in this process if there is an attempt to take him to the
border and deport him or if the extradition is made, we will make a
refugee claim based on a well-founded fear that if he is returned to
the U.S., he will be persecuted," said Conroy. "He is from a
well-defined group that is being persecuted in the U.S., the medical
marijuana community."