DEA CAN EXAMINE RECORDS OF MARIJUANA PATIENTS

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE -- A district court judge in Sacramento ruled last week
that records of at least 400 South Shore medicinal marijuana patients could
be examined by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The DEA seized more than 5,000 records from the California Medical Research
Center on Sept. 28 saying its medical marijuana recommendations to patients
may represent acts of "aiding and abetting" marijuana sales, according to
U.S. Attorney Anne Pings.

The research center is a two-year-old medical marijuana clinic in Cool, a
town at the northwestern edge of El Dorado County, that has hundreds of
clients from South Shore.

The clinic is run by Dr. Molly Fry, a medical marijuana patient who suffers
from breast cancer, and her husband Dale Schafer, an attorney. They hand out
recommendations for marijuana if a patient is determined to have a medical
need under the guidelines of Proposition 215, a law that passed in 1996. Fry
and Schafer have not been charged with a crime. The record seizure is
considered a pre-indictment proceeding, Schafer said.

"The whole battle is keeping people's confidences confidential," Schafer
said. "I want those records back. Most people using marijuana for medical
reasons came to us to stay out of trouble.

"They've accused us of selling recommendations, I don't know where that
comes from. Thirty to 40 percent of our clients don't qualify for a
recommendation."

An attorney hired by the clinic, J. David Nick, of San Francisco, appealed
last week's ruling by requesting an emergency stay in the 9th Appellate
District Court.

All the files remained sealed Wednesday because an automatic 10-day stay
applies to the district court's Nov. 8 ruling.