Date: Sun, 18 Aug 1996 10:38:31 -0500 To: [iowanor m l] at [commonlink.com] From: "Carl E. Olsen" <[c--l] at [dsmnet.com]> Subject: No medical emergency declaration--for now Here's the official story, but there's more than meets the eye. Look for Brown and SF officials to reconsider and pass the this medical emergency declaration in about 6 weeks. -sk ---------------------------------- Thursday, Aug. 15, 1996 7 Page A 3) 1996 San Francisco Examiner ---------- "Emergency' cannabis sale plan fades Mayor says proposal could endanger city's anti-AIDS needle exchange program Diana Walsh OF THE EXAMINER STAFF Elizabeth Fernandez of The Examiner staff contributed to this report. Mayor Brown has backed away from a proposal to declare a citywide state of emergency allowing marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, saying such action could put The City's needle exchange program in legal jeopardy. And in an apparent move to distance himself from the Cannabis Buyers' Club, which was raided and shut down by state narcotics agents earlier this month, Brown said city officials are trying to work out an agreement with the state attorney general's office to let another organization distribute the illegal drug to the sick. "If they say that it can't be done with the Cannabis Club (and) it has to be done with some other organization that's free of any taint, then we'll do that," Brown said Wednesday at his bi-weekly press conference. The Cannabis Buyers' Club was set up to provide marijuana to people suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other life-threatening illnesses for which the drug has been found to relieve some symptoms and the side effects of treatment. But state authorities say a lengthy investigation found the club frequently sold the drug to minors and those with no medical need for it. The mayor, who last week said he stood behind the idea of declaring emergency protection for medicinal pot use, said he changed his mind after talking to members of the police commission and health department officials. Brown said city officials fear "that if we bundle the medical emergency around cannabis and there is a (successful legal challenge) on that, it will spill over and adversely impact the effective needle exchange program." The mayor said police commissioner Pat Norman and public health director Sandra Hernandez are working to find an alternative organization to the Cannabis Buyers' Club. The city attorney's office could not be reached for comment but is expected to give its opinion on the medicinal use issue at a Board of Supervisors hearing Thursday. Declaring a medical emergency "may be something that we can't do," said Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who initially asked city health officials to consider declaring the emergency. "If the mayor has a problem, the city attorney has a problem and the director of health has a problem, those are all (opinions) we would consider." Three years of clean needles Distributing needles to drug users is against state law. But for the past three years, The City has used the cloak of a health emergency to allow health workers and AIDS activists to hand out sterile needles to intravenous drug users to cut their high risk of contracting AIDS. Hernandez said the needle exchange program "is a legitimate and well-founded basis for declaring a public health emergency." Marijuana, she said, "alleviates symptoms, but it's a quality of life issue," and declaring a state of emergency to ensure its use for medicinal purposes would be very difficult to justify legally. Steve Telliano, a spokesman for the Attorney General Dan Lungren, said the office had had no contact with city officials over the issue. "I think it's important to note the mayor understands that we had to do this and that the law was on our side in this matter," he said. Norman said she would like to see an organization that has employees with expertise in both medical and counseling services take over providing the marijuana to the sick. A fresh organization sought "My interest is to get it to an organization that has no history with legal or illegal use of marijuana," she said. "It should not be a political issue, it should be provided as treatment." She would not identify the two organizations she has in mind as possible replacements. Cannabis Buyers' Club founder Dennis Peron, responding to the mayor's comments, said Brown "is buying all Dan Lungren's lies." But Peron said he would support Brown if the mayor decides to distribute pot through a different organization. He said his primary interest is not to reopen the club but to make sure that marijuana gets in the hands of the sick. "Maybe I didn't run it as tight as I could have," he said, conceding that the club may have inadvertently admitted people without valid medical documentation. "We are such kind and compassionate people. That was probably our downfall." ____________________________________________ A l p i n e W o r l d O n l i n e URL: http://www.alpworld.com ____________________________________________ Rated: TOP 5% by Point and TOP TEN by Web Counter. Over 1.8 MILLION HITS per month, verified by Linex Com Rated #1 by NEWSWEEK and WEBSIGHT magazines. ALPINE WORLD PUBLISHING, INC. P.O. Box 2025, Olympic Valley, CA 96146 (916) 581-1115 or (415) 464-4141 E-mail: [k--b--y] at [alpworld.com] ____________________________________________ ********************************************************************** * Carl E. Olsen * [c--l] at [dsmnet.com] * * Post Office Box 4091 * NORML News archived at: * * Des Moines, Iowa 50333 * http://www.commonlink.com/~olsen/ * * (515) 262-6957 voice & fax * [c--o--n] at [mail.commonlink.com] * ********************************************************************** Reporters and Researchers are welcome at the world's largest on-line library of drug policy material at: http://www.druglibrary.org/