MEDICINAL MARIJUANA CLUB IN S.F. RAIDED BY U.S. AGENTS

3 Are Arrested; 8,300 Plants Taken Away

Federal drug agents on Tuesday raided a medicinal marijuana club in San
Francisco and served seven other search warrants, arresting three people
and confiscating 8,300 pot plants -- a crackdown that drew a sharp
denunciation from advocates of using the weed as medicine.

The raids coincided with a speech delivered the same day at the
Commonwealth Club in the city by Asa Hutchinson, administrator of the Drug
Enforcement Administration, and the announcement in Washington of President
Bush's new drug strategy.

To some, that smacked of a poor-taste publicity stunt.

``It seems that the government is playing fast and loose with the health of
thousands of people, all for publicity reasons, so they can have a big
splash when Asa Hutchinson comes to San Francisco,'' said William Panzer,
attorney for arrested pot suspect Ed Rosenthal of Oakland.

The raids began early Tuesday morning. Arrested were James Halloran of
Oakland; Richard Watts of San Francisco, the suspected manager of the
marijuana club; and Rosenthal, a minor celebrity as the author of several
books on marijuana. He also used to write a column called Ask Ed for High
Times Magazine, the counterculture digest of pot aficionados.

Also arrested was Kenneth Hayes in Canada, on suspicion of drug offenses
there. A warrant on U.S. charges awaits him. ``I expect he'll be seeking
political refuge status'' in Canada, Panzer said.

Using marijuana for medicinal use is legal in seven states, including
California, but remains illegal under superseding federal law. San
Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan has rebuked the federal
government for trying to enforce the laws, and does not prosecute medical
marijuana cases.

But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of the Oakland
Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative that federal anti-drug laws do not permit an
exception for medicinal marijuana. Richard Meyer, spokesman for the DEA,
said the three men made their first appearance in court Tuesday and remain
in custody. A hearing to set bail could come as early as today.

Meyer discounted the allegations, made by several pot advocates, that the
raids were staged to bring attention to the federal government's anti-drug
stance. ``It was a coincidence,'' he said. ``We wouldn't put the lives of
our agents at risk just to impress an administrator.''

In all, warrants were served in Oakland, San Francisco and Petaluma. ``They
were locations connected in one way or another to our investigation into a
group that was smuggling and trafficking marijuana,'' Meyer said. Agents
also searched five vehicles.

The suspicion is that the men were supplying the club. Nonetheless, the
club, the Sixth Street Harm Reduction Center, seemed undaunted. Its workers
went out and got some new ``product'' and reopened shortly after the raid.

David Whitty, chief of security for the pot club, said about a dozen agents
broke into the unopened store Tuesday morning, taking computers, paperwork,
a pound of marijuana and 630 plants. ``They confiscated a truckload of
stuff,'' Whitty said. ``When they left, I opened the place for business.''

The store, on a seedy street just south of Union Square, has been operating
for nearly a year and serves about 200 customers a day, Whitty said. It
offers pot to the sick who have a doctor's recommendation and provides
meals and help in finding shelter.

It was the club's first raid. At the counter sat Callie Middlebrooks,
smoking a marijuana joint and listening to the music pumping from the
speakers. She said her doctor recommended she smoke pot to help her
scoliosis. ``I'm still in chronic pain,'' said Middlebrooks, 44, ``but I
can move easier and get more done than when I don't have any.''