Chicago Tribune - Thursday, October 15, 1998
V. Dion Haynes

In his Tuesday night ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer rejected arguments from lawyers representing the 2,000- member Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative that the federal government's ban on medical marijuana violates patients' constitutional rights to relieve excruciating pain.

Breyer acknowledged that closing the club would increase suffering, but he ruled that the action would not cause imminent harm or death to the patients. Club officials, who sought a jury trial on the matter, said they plan to appeal the decision.

The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative was among six such clubs in northern California that had been sued by the U.S. Justice Department for violating federal marijuana distribution laws.

Breyer ruled that another club, Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax, could remain open until a jury in an upcoming trial settles the narrow issue of whether it dispensed marijuana the day a federal agent conducted surveillance of it.

A third cannabis club, in Ukiah, has remained open and three others have closed.

California voters approved in November 1996 a statewide ballot measure that allowed seriously ill patients to grow and smoke medical marijuana under certain circumstances.

But that measure is in direct conflict with federal law. The Justice Department and California Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, the Republican nominee for governor, have battled to close the clubs.

In August, the Oakland City Council approved a measure making the club an "agent of the city," attempting to use a clause in the Federal Controlled Substances Act that shields from federal prosecution undercover agents who sell drugs in their official capacity with the police.

Oakland officials on Wednesday said they plan to stage a protest of the judge's ruling at the club's office Friday.

"I'm angry and depressed," said Joe DeVries, an aide to Oakland Councilman Nate Miley.

"The federal government says that marijuana has no medical benefit, but I'd like them to talk to a 70-year-old chemotherapy patient who says marijuana saved his life, or AIDS patients who would tell them that marijuana is the only thing that will bring back their appetite," DeVries said.

Robert Raich, a lawyer for the Oakland cannabis club, said: "We're disappointed with the ruling. . . . We're concerned that this will cause a public health and safety problem for these patients, who will have to go to the streets to get their marijuana."

Under Lungren's interpretation of the state law, seriously ill patients could grow and smoke the medical marijuana only with a doctor's recommendation. If the patients were unable to grow it on their own, Lungren said, they could obtain it from a "primary care giver," such as a doctor, nurse or relative.

The cannabis clubs contended they were primary care givers and therefore acting within the law.
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