LOW TIMES: S.F. POT CLUB CLOSES, FEARS RAIDS

Several people gathered Nov. 1 inside the yellow-and-purple walls of
Cannabis Healing Californians, a pot club on 10th Street. It wasn't
the sort of scene one might expect -- there was no giggling, no
napping, no "dude, where's my pipe?" comments.

There are 1,200 people in the club's database. Most suffer from AIDS
or cancer; to get marijuana, they must show a California ID, a
doctor's recommendation, and a cannabis ID card issued by the city's
Department of Public Health. They come to get weed and also to take
advantage of yoga classes, massage, acupuncture, and nutritional
advice -- all free.

A patient named Deborah says pot from the club has helped her kick
her prescription pill habit. "When my parents saw me for the first
time in six months, they said, 'Whatever you're doing, don't stop,' "
she says. "I'm a completely changed person."

Now the club, one of several city dens where the afflicted can find a
little bit of comfort, is in the process of shutting down. The owners
say they think the Oct. 25 Drug Enforcement Administration raid of a
respected club in West Hollywood is the opening shot in a large-scale
attack on medical marijuana by the Bush administration.

It's a move that many have anticipated since the Supreme Court ruled
in May that federal law overrides Proposition 215, the 1996
initiative that sanctioned medical marijuana in California.

San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan told the Bay
Guardian he has no knowledge that the Drug Enforcement Administration
is planning raids in San Francisco, though "a number of clubs feel
they are under surveillance." Hallinan called on the feds Nov. 5 to
stay away from San Francisco clubs, saying that Prop. 215 has been
successfully implemented here and that street crime is down as a
result. Sup. Mark Leno introduced legislation the same day that would
make the city "a sanctuary for medical cannabis use, cultivation, and
distribution." It also urges state and local authorities not to
participate in a federal crackdown.

Supporters of medical marijuana are cheered by the efforts, but
they're not resting any easier. While pot laws in other countries are
being loosened -- just last week the United Kingdom reclassified
marijuana as a soft drug -- the U.S. government seems determined to
step up antimarijuana efforts.

After Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote his anti-Prop. 215
opinion, which said that the federal Controlled Substances Act
prohibits the distribution of marijuana, several conservative members
of Congress urged U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft to stop pot
smoking where it is permitted by state or county law.

(Right now eight states and the District of Columbia have medical pot
laws on the books.)

Dale Gieringer, the California coordinator of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and one of the lead
organizers for Prop. 215, says the L.A. raid makes it clear that
President George W. Bush has nothing but the worst intentions when it
comes to medical marijuana. And while Gieringer is hopeful that even
federal law can be changed, he stresses the immediate effects of a
concerted crackdown. "They have completely destroyed the legal
medical marijuana market in L.A.," Gieringer says, sending people out
into the black market and potentially to jail. "They're creating
marijuana criminals. I don't know what possible good the government
thinks they're doing."

Robin Few, who opened Cannabis Healing Californians with Michael
Foley, uses pot to treat her Hepatitis C and also to keep from
drinking. "I was a barfly. I went from bar to bar," she says,
acknowledging that her club's late hours (usually it's open 2 p.m. to
10 p.m.) are designed to give people a place to hang out.

"Look at what we've built with our city," Few says. "How can the
federal government come in now, when there's anthrax to worry about?"

Dennis Collins, a 55-year-old Vietnam vet who has spinal stenosis, a
narrowing of the spinal canal that compresses nerves and causes
intense pain, is standing by the club's door. "My neurosurgeon was
going to put me on pain pills and said I'd have to get liver and
kidney tests every six months," he says. "I asked him, 'Do you mean
to tell me that these pills are going to wreck my liver or kidneys?
Is there an alternative?' " Collins's doctor suggested he try
marijuana, and four years later he says it enables him to walk
without pain and to eat more healthily. He takes the bus up from San
Mateo once a month to buy weed.

Where will Collins go now that the club is closing? Few and Foley are
giving their regular customers directions to other clubs, sometimes
walking them outside to point the way. "There are other clubs open,"
Foley said. "But who knows how long that'll last?"