Source:   LA Daily News
Pubdate:  July 31 1997

CANNABIS CLUB AWAITS OUTCOME OF BELAIR RAID 
By: Theresa Moreau  Daily News Staff Writer 

 Amid  the glitz of West Hollywood, there are many exclusive clubs, but
just one where not anyone can become a member.

   The  main  criteria  of joining the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers' Club is
singular in nature  a debilitating disease that requires marijuana to ease
pain, boost appetite or provide other therapy.

   ``It's  a  nice  club  if  you  need  it,  but  who  wants  to  have the
preconditions to get in?'' asked Scott Imler, founder of the club, which is
housed  in  an  airy secondfloor loft above an auto garage on Santa Monica
Boulevard.

   Imler officially opened the club Nov. 5, 1996, the day California voters
passed  Proposition  215,  which allows marijuana use for medicinal reasons
with the backing of a physician.

   On  Tuesday the club has reached another important benchmark: The arrest
of  BelAir  resident  Todd  McCormick  who is accused of growing 4,116 pot
plants that he contends is his right under the ballot initiative.

   McCormick  was  not  a  member  of  the  club and did not supply it with
marijuana,  but  his  arrest  is  expected  to test the legal boundaries of
Proposition  215,  which  could  change  how  the  club does business  and
whether it does business.

   ``Standards  are  going  to be set for what's going to be acceptable and
unacceptable for what the provision means under Proposition 215,'' he said.

   At  the  same time, Imler and others are concerned that the arrest could
wipe  out  the club's work to earn the trust of law enforcement and operate
under  the  initiative.  The  club  was  raided  in 1996, two months before
Proposition 215 was adopted, but since then it has operated without trouble
from the law.

   ``Stuff like this risks ruining it for all of us,'' Imler said.

   Further, Imler said he was unsure of McCormick's motives. ``The scope of
Todd's  operation  was  huge,  and  in my mind it was one more example of a
`potrepreneur' trying to cash in in the wake of 215,'' Imler said.

   The rules are strict for prospective members: Each must present a letter
of recommendation from a doctor, which must be able to be verified.

   There  now  are  580  members,  all  card  carriers  and  all  sick.  By
midafternoon  the  day's first members began climbing the long staircase to
the club.

   At  the front door, one ashenfaced man suffering from AIDS, and shaking
so   badly   he   needed  help  to  climb  up  the  stairs,  presented  his
identification to fellow members.

   ``You  look  great  today,''  said  Jay Fritz, who screens all potential
members.

   ``Marijuana  is  God's medicine,'' Fritz said. ``And this is not a party
house. We're here for a reason  medical marijuana.''

   Soon  others  followed,  including  a  56yearold  woman, a former city
worker  for  the  city of Pasadena, who suffers from a disease in which her
nervous system is slowly deteriorating.

   After  walking  into  the  club,  she  picked  up  a  menu of the week's
offerings,  made  her  selection,  then  walked  up  to  the  window  where
pharmacist  Jeff  Farrington handed her a pink container with buds of Ultra
Red  Seven    $20  per  gram  for the high quality, best of crop, and high
content of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.