Activists Propose Cannibus Club to Get Pot to the Ill

According to one view of the law, Rick Maloof should be able to take a few drags of marijuana whenever he feels the need.

Battling the ravages of AIDS, the Ventura resident is among dozens, if not hundreds, of local residents who say they may legally inhale the drug as a result of a statewide measure allowing marijuana use for medical purposes.

“I don’t smoke to get stoned,” he said. “All I need is just one, maybe two hits, and that’s good enough. It has really saved me.”

Most voters probably had someone like Maloof in mind when they overwhelmingly passed the proposition--also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996--last November.

Proposition 215 allows “seriously ill” people to use marijuana to treat a wide range of symptoms, as long as they have permission from their doctors.

The new rules sound simple enough, but in practice they are much more problematic.

Before the proposition’s passage, state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren had predicted “legal anarchy” if the measure was approved. Lungren’s ominous warnings were repeated by the county’s top law enforcement officials.

The measure conflicts with federal drug laws, and doesn’t clearly define what constitutes a serious illness. Moreover, doctors cannot prescribe marijuana without risking the loss of their licenses to prescribe drugs.

In reality, instead of making it easier for sick people to obtain pot, Proposition 215 has merely created a strange, new gray area of the law.

And it has forced people such as Maloof, who can legitimately use marijuana for medicinal purposes, into the illegal drug market to buy their supply.

A handful of Ventura County pot activists want to change that by opening a “Cannabis Club,” which would distribute quality marijuana to the sick.

Pot activists Lynn and Judy Osburn, who helped with the statewide Proposition 215 campaign from their Lockwood Valley ranch, predict that within a few months a cannabis buyers club will be up and running in the county, supplying sick people like Maloof with marijuana.

“It’s going to happen,” said Lynn Osburn, a Vietnam veteran and author who has written extensively for the magazine High Times. “There needs to be a legal supply of the drug.”

Although law enforcement officials have said they do not intend to arrest terminally ill patients such as Maloof, they say they have no intention of allowing a pot distribution center to open locally.

“The law currently prohibits cannabis buyers’ clubs,” Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said. “I will enforce the law.”

Bradbury said Proposition 215 is being used as a smoke screen by people such as the Osburns for the legalization of marijuana.

“It provided a measure of respectability, unfortunately, to the movement to legalize/decriminalize marijuana,” he said. “[And] it may have contributed to the increased use of marijuana by our youth.”

Since the passage of the ballot measure, Bradbury has continued to speak out against the medicinal use of marijuana.

There are prescription alternatives to marijuana, namely the drug Marinol, a synthetic form of THC, one of the main ingredients in marijuana, he said.

This summer he spoke before doctors at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura about the proposition.

“I opposed the enactment of Proposition 215 for a number of reasons, including its potential for abuse, its negative effect on the war against drugs, and the lack of medical evidence as to effectiveness,” Bradbury said in his address. “But now that the law has been enacted, my office is required to follow it, and we will.”

But just what that means is unclear.

Recognizing the lack of a legal supply of marijuana, some California communities have given tacit approval to cannabis clubs that distribute marijuana to those who qualify for the drug.

In San Jose, a police officer oversees the nation’s only licensed marijuana distribution house. Other communities--such as San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Oakland and West Hollywood--have turned a blind eye toward such clubs.

Those clubs have had mixed reviews.

Some are more stringent than others in their guidelines for distributing marijuana, and have consequently attracted law enforcement attention.

Scott Imler, director of the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers Club in West Hollywood, said it is important for a club to remain beyond reproach.

“I think Ventura County has a ways to go before they can set up a club,” said Imler, a former schoolteacher. “The problem is there are a lot of people out there that I like to call ‘pot-entrepreneurs’ who just see an opportunity to make a buck . . . so it’s really important that the right people are involved with forming a club.”

The L.A. Cannabis Buyers Club has a rigorous screening process for its members, Imler said. He said club members must have a legitimate recommendation from a doctor. Most customers are using marijuana to treat nausea, a side effect from chemotherapy treatments for cancer or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, Imler said.

Many Ventura County residents are among the 1,500 people who pick up marijuana at the club.

“The alternative to what we do is people going out into the black market to purchase their marijuana,” Imler said.

Law enforcement officials said a pound of marijuana sells for about $3,200 wholesale.

Even the cannabis clubs that have tacit approval from local authorities walk a fine legal line. They try to avoid legal hassles by selling no more than an ounce a week to patients--possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is a misdemeanor.

For most patients an ounce is enough to last two or three weeks, Imler said. Some of the patients require more, using it for baking such foods as brownies.

Many clubs still have not solved the supply problem. In San Jose, the club grows its own pot on the premises. The Los Angeles club has not been able to do that and still must buy its supply on the black market.

These are all hurdles that a Ventura County cannabis club will have to clear to be successful, Imler said.

And there have been other problems with Proposition 215, according to officials from the state attorney general’s office. Across the state, courts are trying to sort out the claims of people arrested for marijuana possession or cultivation who are using a medicinal use defense.

So far no similar cases have come up in Ventura County courts.

Although local law enforcement officials now question those arrested for marijuana violations about whether they have a doctor’s prescription to use the drug, not many people have tried to make that claim.

“We’ve had people tell deputies that a doctor somewhere gave them a prescription to use marijuana,” Sheriff’s Capt. Keith Parks said. “But whenever we check out those claims they’ve turned out to be bogus.”

But sick people in the county who swear by marijuana say something needs to be done to accommodate them.

Vicki Jennings, a 54-year-old grandmother who has debilitating arthritis and other ailments, said that after the passage of Proposition 215 she began using marijuana to help her sleep and relieve pain.

More than 16 years ago, when she was first struggling with her illness, her husband suggested she use marijuana. She tried it and it helped. Her mother Vivian, who was in her late 60s at the time, actually went out and purchased the drug for her daughter.

“But I stopped using it after a short time because it was illegal,” Jennings said. “I felt as a Christian I couldn’t break the law.”

After the ballot measure was passed, however, she started smoking a little marijuana before turning in each night.

“It’s really helped me live again,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s a miracle drug, and I’m sure it’s not going to help everybody. But it really has helped me.”

Jennings said she does not support the legalization of marijuana, and that she tells her grandchildren that the marijuana she uses is like the other pills she takes for her sickness.

But Jennings said she still worries about the legality of what she is doing.

“I’m not a criminal, but the way things are I’m made to feel like one,” she said. “I think the D.A. and the sheriff have a point. There are always people out there who will abuse the law. But I think that if they had a relative that was suffering from an illness who got relief by using marijuana, they would have a change of heart.”

Jennings said she has heard talk there may be a cannabis club set up in the county.

“I would love it if they could do that here,” she said.

As for AIDS patient Maloof, he said he worries he might be arrested while buying marijuana. But he said he is willing to take that chance.

“I figure I’m only buying a small amount, so I don’t think they would bother with me,” he said. “But if I get arrested, I’ll be screaming all the way to the jail. This is important to me.”