Pubdate: Oct 15, 1998 Source: Oakland Tribune (CA) Contact: Kathleen Krikwood JUDGE GRANTS MEDICAL POT CLUB THREE-DAY REPRIEVE Co-Op Has Until 5 P.M. Monday To Keep Doors Open To Members OAKLAND - Just hours before U.S. Marshals were to come knocking Friday, a federal judge granted Oakland's embattled medical marijuana club a three-day reprieve from a court-ordered shutdown. U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer granted a stay that allows the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative to stay open until 5 p.m. Monday, giving attorneys time to appeal the case to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Breyer had ordered the club closed at 5 p.m. Friday, for violating this previous order to stop distributing marijuana. Club attorneys submitted an appeal and Breyer gave the club a brief stay. Cooperative staff had been preparing to close down and leave peacefully early Friday afternoon, to be out of the way when marshals arrived to inventory marijuana supplies and padlock the doors. "I'm delighted," said Jeff Jones, the cooperative's executive director, shortly after the stay was granted. " feel (Breyer) is giving the alternative to pursue our case in court." The law-key club on Broadway in downtown Oakland is the largest such dispensary in the state, and was opened after the passage of California's medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215. About 2,200 members, suffering from illnesses and physical disabilities, obtain marijuana there in the form of starter plants, dried bulk form or baked into cookies or brownies. Despite efforts to keep a low profile, the Oakland club has been thrust into the limelight because it has remained open while other facilities, such as the San Francisco Cannabis Club, have been shuttered after intensive efforts by state Attorney General Dan Lungren. Following on the heels of Breyer's temporary stay of a shutdown order, attorneys for the club quickly filed an appeal with the higher court. Attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department sought an injunction in January to close club, arguing it is a violation of federal law to distribute marijuana, defined as an illegal controlled substance in the same category as heroin or cocaine. But attorney Robert Raich, representing the club, said Breyer had misinterpreted federal law when he issued the shutdown order earlier Tuesday. "We feel the judge missed some important facts and misapplied the law," Raich said. The club, Raich argues, is not in violation of federal controlled substances acts and imminent harm will come to patients if they are not able to obtain marijuana. "It is not at all an exaggeration that people would die as a result of this," Raich said. Several patients, in declarations to the court, have stated that cutting off their marijuana supply would be a "death sentence." - --- Checked-by: Rolf Ernst