Source: San Jose Mercury News Contact: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 Plan calls for county to dispense pot Supervisor Nevin: His proposal to let government distribute medicinal marijuana creates an odd trio of allies. BY ALAN GATHRIGHT Mercury News Staff Writer You wouldn't expect a streetwise, expolice detective to advocate distributing contraband marijuana to the sick through county public health clinics. But San Mateo County Supervisor Mike Nevin, who jokingly calls himself ``Supervisor Pot,'' is on a deadserious mission of mercy: creating the first governmentrun medicinal marijuana dispensary in the United States. ``I'm trying to find a compassionate way of getting this drug, that is now legal, to the sick and dying people who need it,'' said Nevin, the board president who served 27 years as a San Francisco police inspector. Nevin, who has the support of a majority of the fivemember board, hopes to get approval at a supervisor's meeting today to push for special state legislation authorizing the pilot project. His plan is also getting a hearing from unexpected quarters. State Attorney General Dan Lungren, without committing his support, has assigned a staff attorney to work with the county to develop a project proposal, Nevin said. The supervisor also expects to ask state Sen. John Vasconcellos, DSanta Clara, to include the pilot project in legislation for a threeyear study on the effectiveness of medicinal marijuana. It would be an odd political alliance: Vasconcellos, the New Age liberal and possible Democratic gubernatorial candidate, working with the lawandorder Lungren, an archfoe of Proposition 215 and probable Republican candidate, to approve a government pot program devised by the Democratic excop, Nevin. Like many local officials across California, Nevin is confounded that a year after voters passed Proposition 215, allowing physician approval of medicinal marijuana for seriously ill people, local governments are still divided and fumbling about how the drug can be delivered to those in need. Proposition 215 allows for patients to have marijuana grown by vaguely defined ``primary caregivers,'' giving rise to socalled cannabis clubs, which some counties have declared illegal. Officials in San Jose, Alameda and San Francisco counties have, with police scrutiny, tolerated medicinal pot dispensaries. State and federal law still prohibit the transportation of marijuana for any use. Nevin said his plan safeguards delivery of medicinal marijuana to suffering people, while preventing dope dealers from masquerading as Florence Nightingales. County pharmacists would assure the quality of marijuana seized by police and distribute it to patients or their caregivers who show identity cards confirming a doctor's approval. ``Utopia would be (if) you put it in Longs and Walgreens, but the Drug Enforcement Administration would never allow that,'' Nevin said. But Lungren may be eager for alternatives to a dispensary after losing initial court skirmishes to shut the San Francisco pot club. Lungren has called ``enlightened'' the proposals by San Mateo and Marin counties to issue marijuana identity cards to patients and their caregivers, which would allow them to grow enough marijuana for medicinal needs. `Communistic infringement' While some would call it nirvana if the government began to dole out subsidized or free pot, Salvador Garcia said the county program would be ``a communistic infringement on my right to free enterprise.'' Garcia is miffed because the county temporarily banned his proposal for a medicinal pot dispensary last month. The county counsel now says that any marijuana distribution private or public is illegal until state and federal laws are changed. Garcia vowed to rally about 50 patients, doctors and supporters for a ``Lift The Ban'' protest at Tuesday's supervisors meeting. An engineer who volunteers at the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, Garcia argued that if the county used confiscated marijuana, there will be no ``quality control.'' ``We wouldn't know where their marijuana comes from, how old and moldy it is, what it's been laced with,'' said Garcia. He said he's used his marijuanagrowing skills to make pot cookies that put 30 pounds back on his cancerstricken brother's gaunt frame. Coastal greenhouses Garcia suggested that the county's antimarijuana stance would hamper its ability to operate dispensaries. But with his help, Garcia suggested the county could use coastal greenhouses to grow the marijuana. ``They're in a perfect position to wholesale the marijuana, control the cultivation quality and regulate the distribution to private dispensaries throughout the state. But instead they want to dominate the whole situation and stifle free enterprise,'' Garcia said. Nevin laughingly replied: ``So I'm going to get quality control from Garcia? My God! The county has pharmacists far more capable of determining what is good and what isn't good than a wellmeaning layman who's dealing with a cannabis club.'' Meanwhile, supervisors Rich Gordon, Mary Griffin and Tom Huening have expressed support for Nevin's plan. Barrales opposes plan But Supervisor Ruben Barrales said: ``I don't think the county should be in the business of distributing marijuana,'' and he's strongly opposed to Garcia opening a private dispensary in North Fair Oaks, where ``people are fighting to get drugs out of their community.'' Griffin, who recalled giving morphine injections to a husband dying from cancer, said: ``If somebody is critically or terminally ill and the doctor says marijuana can bring relief, why shouldn't we let them have it? It can't be more addictive than morphine.'' Gordon said government distribution might be the solution to the Proposition 215 muddle. ``To have 58 counties in California all approaching this in a different way doesn't make sense. I'm inclined to suggest that this county take the leadership in presenting Mr. Nevin's proposal to the state Legislature as way to get this matter cleared up.''