Officials Suggest Ways to Distribute Medical Marijuana

Faced with a federal crackdown on California’s cannabis clubs, local and state officials brainstormed Tuesday about alternative ways to distribute medical marijuana to those with AIDS, cancer and other diseases.

At a hearing before a state Senate committee, the officials--joined by dozens of medical marijuana advocates--agreed that the easiest answer was to make marijuana available in pharmacies.

“My [preference] would be to prescribe marijuana like I prescribe other drugs,” said Mitchell Katz, the public health director in San Francisco and an internist who says his AIDS patients have obtained benefits from smoking pot.

That, however, would require the federal government to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II drug. Users of medicinal pot have been seeking such a change for years, but their pleas have gone unheard.

In the meantime, California is mired in a legal quandary created by Proposition 215, which was passed by 56% of the state’s voters in 1996. The ballot measure permitted AIDS patients and others to use marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

But since its approval, state and federal officials have mounted legal attacks on cannabis clubs selling the drug, saying that the initiative did not authorize marijuana distribution.

On Monday, San Francisco sheriff’s deputies staged a predawn raid on that city’s largest club, shutting it down and seizing a small amount of marijuana.

And earlier this month, a federal judge ordered six Northern California cannabis clubs to stop selling marijuana. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer concluded that federal law bans the manufacture, possession and distribution of pot and that federal law supersedes the initiative passed by California voters.

In response to the legal mess, state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) convened a “medical marijuana summit,” inviting representatives from all sides in the debate to the capital.

Among those who testified was San Francisco Dist. Atty. Terence Hallinan, who urged the Legislature to authorize county health departments to create marijuana distribution centers, which would give pot to people who present a recommendation from a licensed physician.

“If public health officials were authorized to do this, it would be accessible to people,” Hallinan said. “It would also make it clear that this is a health issue . . . and not a law enforcement issue.”

Officials from Santa Clara County said they are writing a local ordinance to permit the distribution of marijuana within the legal confines of Proposition 215.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Karyn Sinunu said the ordinance guards against fraudulent purchases by requiring cannabis clubs to verify a doctor’s marijuana recommendation through the county health department.

Santa Clara officials also are hoping to establish standards for marijuana quality--which can vary dramatically.

“We all know that marijuana can be cut with all sorts of foul products,” Sinunu said. “That cannot be allowed for cancer and AIDS patients.”

Perhaps the most novel testimony came from the city of Arcata in Humboldt County, where medicinal pot users are issued photo identification cards by local police. So far, about 40 people have been issued such cards, said Police Lt. Randy Mendoza, adding that the system helps law enforcement “deal with the ambiguities” created by Proposition 215.

Federal officials declined to participate in Tuesday’s session. U.S. Atty. Michael Yamaguchi in San Francisco was invited but said he believed it would be inappropriate to attend given ongoing litigation over the matter.