Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 Source: SF Weekly (CA) Copyright: 2001 New Times Inc Contact: http://www.mapinc.org/media/812 Website: http://www.sfweekly.com/ Author: Matt Smith Note: Content not related to drug policy at beginning of article snipped for brevity. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ocbc.htm (Oakland Cannabis Court Case) NOW, THE EMPHATIC COLONIC NEWS Chevron To Turks: Bay Is Pristine! (snipped) Tenants To Landlords: You're Illegal! (snipped) GOP To Pot Doctor: Good Job! Potheads To Supervisors: Like, Wow -- A Sanctuary! Dr. Tod Mikuriya Of Berkeley Shows Us Man-Screwing Of Professional Proportions. Mikuriya has done such a delicious (if insignificant) job of thumbing his nose at The Man that I've found myself in the lamentable position of admiring someone I might otherwise disparage. You see, the doctor's Berkeley office has churned out more then 5,000 prescriptions for medical marijuana since 1996, a pace that suggests he has, at the very least, an overly broad sense of weed's curative properties. But Friday I received the following press release, causing me to take a softer view of the good doctor: "The National Republican Congressional Committee has given Tod Mikuriya, M.D., a "National Leadership Award.' A gilt-sealed certificate names him Honorary Co-Chairman of the NRCC's Physician's Advisory Board. Mikuriya, 67, is a dignified Berkeley psychiatrist who has devoted his career to studying the medical uses of cannabis. Since the passage of Prop 215, he has recommended the herb for some 5,000 patients with diverse disorders. "This award is a welcome antidote to being dissed by district attorneys and harassed by the California Medical Board,' Mikuriya said today." By writing and distributing his release, Mikuriya set up the conditions for the following fabulous conversation with Carl Forti, communications director, National Republican Congressional Committee. Carl: This is an award that's given to physicians around the country who have supported us in the past. It's a group of doctors invited to attend meetings here in Washington, D.C., and share their opinions on today's issues." SF Weekly: Dr. Mikuriya, the new honorary co-chairman of your Physician's Advisory Board, is best known for getting in trouble with the California Attorney General's Office for advocating medical cannabis. What kind of help has he given the Advisory Board? Is he advising you on drug policy? Carl: (Silence.) This is a partial fund-raising group, so he would at some point in the past have given money to us as well. SFW: So he got this award for making contributions? Carl: Absolutely. This absolute assertion raised the absolutely delicious possibility that the Republican Congressional Committee was being funded from the proceeds of Northern California pot dealing; sadly, it isn't. "I do his books, and I'd know if he did, and he didn't [make donations to the NRCC]," Mikuriya's office manager, John Trapp, insisted during a follow-up call. The press release, as it happens, was a prank by Mikuriya. He hoped to highlight the GOP committee's Publishers Clearing House-style fund-raising mailers, which proclaim doctors to be Physician's Advisory Board co-chairmen, then hit them up for donations. "I did this because the Republicans have really sunk into a new level of sleaze," Mikuriya said when I phoned him. "I thought, "Why not? I'll play along with this.' Now, I look forward to meeting with other Republican leaders and talking about alternate approaches to drug problems."(footnote 2) - ---------------------------------------- Dr. Mikuriya's screw-The-Man pranking put me in the perfect frame of mind Friday afternoon for crashing a monthly strategy meeting between S.F. city officials and S.F. medical marijuana distributors. There, I learned about a meaningless act of screw-The-Man bravura that I find truly charming. San Francisco will soon become a medical marijuana sanctuary. No, I'm not toking. In the manner of the 1980s Sanctuary Movement, which sought to protect refugees fleeing war in Central America, the Board of Supervisors may soon consider a resolution that declares: "[T]he San Francisco District Attorney and the California Attorney General are urged not to assist in the prosecution of individual patients or cannabis providers." The measure comes on the heels of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision casting doubt on Proposition 215, a 1996 initiative allowing patients, with a doctor's recommendation, to grow and use marijuana for pain relief. The court said Congress, not California voters, has the final say in the matter of controlled substances. The marijuana sanctuary resolution, which is being drafted by the City Attorney's Office, would essentially implore law enforcement agencies to leave San Francisco potheads alone. The resolution is tentatively backed by Supervisors Sophie Maxwell, Mark Leno, Jake McGoldrick, and Matt Gonzalez, according to fine print on a draft version of the resolution the City Attorney's Office presented to medical marijuana dealers Friday. A final proposed version will be brought to a meeting of the marijuana club directors scheduled for Oct. 5, an assistant city attorney said. Now, it's well known that District Attorney Terence Hallinan doesn't prosecute dope dealers. And San Francisco has no say in what the state attorney general does. So the sanctuary measure would have no immediate, practical significance. Still, even though I've never tried marijuana, there's something I find uniquely precious about living in a dope sanctuary. And unlike the unconstitutional, convoluted, complex Band-Aid laws we've been throwing at, say, housing, the sanctuary movement does absolutely no harm. Toke on dudes! Death to Chevron! (1) http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2001-07-11/smith.html (2) Forti called me back later to say that the Republican Congressional Committee planned to return any contributions Dr. Mikuriya might have made, if the committee indeed found he was a medical marijuana advocate. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk