Pubdate: Monday,June 14,1999 Source: Orange County Register (CA) Copyright: 1999 The Orange County Register Contact: http://www.ocregister.com/ Author: Ulysses Torassa-San Francisco Examiner MEDICAL-POT CLUBS FLOURISH IN LEGAL HAZE Drugs: Four Dispensaries In San Francisco Set Their Own Differing Rules. (San Francisco)-A year after San Francisco's most flamboyant cannabis club was shut down by a judge, medical marijuana distribution here is alive and well, with dispensaries ranging from on-call delivery services to clean, well-lit retail spaces and funky activist-run storefronts. With local politicians on their side and plenty of patients flocking in, four marijuana clubs appear to be quietly flourishing, with a fifth in the works. Still in legal limbo, each has constructed its own set of rules. Some, but not all, of the clubs require proof of a doctor's recommendation, which Proposition 215 - the medical marijuana initiative passed in 1996 - said patients must have before they could legally smoke marijuana. A recent government-commissioned scientific review concluded that marijuana may help a handful of conditions, such as intractable pain, nausea and appetite loss associated with AIDS or cancer. But the clubs attract people with a much broader range of stated ailments, including menstrual cramps, lupus and migraines. Many patients also say they need it for psychiatric or psychological conditions, such as manic depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder - even heroin addiction. Local law-enforcement officials maintain a hands-off policy toward the clubs, which are careful to operate more discreetly than Dennis Peron's Cannabis Healing Center, where crowds congregated on the sidewalk and smoked marijuana in front of TV cameras. The club since has been shut down. Although they have cited some club members for smoking in public, police are not overly concerned, according to Lt. Mike Puccinelli, acting captain of the narcotics division. "There's so many other problems with narcotics in this city, it's not really a big priority," he said. The legal fog the clubs operate in may be clearing somewhat. A task force convened by state Attorney General Bill Lockyer is about to unveil proposed legislation to set standards for deciding who is entitled to possess and use marijuana. The legislation wouldn't address federal laws outlawing marijuana, although activists hope Congress eventually will reclassify it as a prescription drug. A draft of the proposal would create a state ID card issued to people with verified letters from their doctor. It would also sanction distributing medical marijuana by "cultivation cooperatives," run by and for qualified patients, as well as by licensed health-care facilities, like nursing homes and hospices. None of the current group of San Francisco clubs meets those definitions. One is run much like an ordinary business, with a city license; two others shun all official corporate status for philosophical reasons; and a fourth operates under the auspices of a board of directors. The delivery service is headed up by a Hayward woman, Jane Weirick, who hopes to transform it into a standing dispensary under the nonprofit umbrella of a local Catholic church. - --- MAP posted-by: manemez j lovitto