Pubdate: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Author: Alan Gathright, Mercury News Staff Writer TASK FORCE PUSHES FOR MEDICINAL POT Lockyer leads charge to clarify state law Determined to get medicinal marijuana to suffering patients, California law enforcement and cannabis advocates are uniting on myriad proposals, ranging from clinical studies to pondering a state-run pot field. In a tough balancing act, state officials seek to draft a law that clarifies California's murky 1996 medicinal marijuana initiative without drawing the fury of federal officials who vow to snuff out medicinal pot. The campaign is headed by new Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who is a stark contrast to his Republican predecessor, Dan Lungren, the arch foe of Proposition 215, which voters approved to allow doctors to prescribe homegrown medicinal pot. Lungren joined federal prosecutors in a lawsuit last year that shut private "cannabis clubs" that distributed marijuana to patients. Lockyer brings a personal commitment to the issue after watching his mother and sister die from leukemia. "It always amazes me that doctors can prescribe morphine but not marijuana," he said. He has assembled a task force of unlikely allies -- prosecutors and narcotics agents, pot advocates and doctors -- determined to hammer out a law that brings marijuana relief to patients who genuinely need it. The 31-member task force is drafting legislation to buttress Proposition 215, which was criticized for failing to define what illnesses were protected or how much pot a patient could possess. The task force co-chairman, state Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, has introduced a draft that urges the federal government to reclassify marijuana, now deemed an addictive drug with no medical benefits, as a prescribed medication. But the new proposal says that until the federal government takes action, "this bill would require the state to develop and implement a plan for the safe and affordable distribution of medicinal marijuana." The task force draft report suggests "a desirable alternative (to homegrown pot or cannabis clubs) would be state-grown marijuana," cultivated by University of California researchers and distributed by county public health clinics. Lockyer recently went to Washington, D.C., to lobby U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and federal drug czar Barry McCaffrey for leeway on medicinal marijuana. But when Lockyer pointed to a 1972 state law authorizing him to provide marijuana for research projects, McCaffrey warned that anyone who flouted federal law risked arrest. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart