NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, January 16, 1997
5A
New California law reopens cannabis buyers' club
Founders warn drug permitted only to patients
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Milahhr Kemnah strode into the Cannabis Cultivators Club yesterday, paid $10 and got two plastic bags of low-grade Mexican-grown pot. Kennah became the first person in the United States since the 1930s to buy marijuana with the protection of state law.
"I feel glad, and I feel lucky. History is being made," Kennah, who has
AIDS, declared before rolling a joint.
The Cannabis Cultivators Club reopened yesterday, five months after state narcotics agents raided it and closed it. But voter approval in November of Proposition 215 — a measure legalizing marijuana for medical uses — and a judge's ruling last week allowed the club to get back in business.
Before the raid, the club had operated illegally for years, but police in San Francisco had looked the other way.
Would-be pot-smokers lined up to get membership cards on opening day of the Cultivators Club, which will sell marijuana to people with AIDS, glaucoma and other serious illnesses to relieve their symptoms.
Prospective members had to bring doctor's notes, diagnoses and identification. Club organizers called doctors to confirm the documents were legitimate before issuing computer-generated ID cards with photos and a bar-code strip.
The next step was purchasing the marijuana from "bud tender" Randi Webster, who had six types available, from Mexican-grown to top-quality California-grown. Prices ranged from $5 to $65 per one-eighth-ounce bag.
"Is everyone getting confirmed?" asked club founder Dennis Peron. "If not, relax, sit down. In the end, we're going to get a hold of your doctors. And if we can't sell you marijuana today, we'll sell you marijuana tomorrow."
The United States outlawed marijuana in 1937, except for use in approved research. Possession of marijuana remains a federal crime, but it was unclear how federal drug officials would react to the club's reopening.
"We can't comment on it as a specific case," said Bob Weiner, speaking for the Justice Department and Office of National Drug Control Policy. "We will continue to enforce federal law, and we are reviewing the administrative, civil and criminal options right now."
California Attorney General Dan
Lungren reluctantly acknowledged that he was bound by Proposition 215 but warned that he would keep watch on the club to prevent abuses.
The club's attorney, J. David Nick,
said that while the club technically
was violating federal drug law, a raid
was unlikely.
His spokesman, Steve Telliano, said state narcotics agents would not disrupt the club's operations as long it kept proper records and did not make a profit.
"It would be a very despicable act, especially since these individuals are acting in accordance with state law," Nick said. "But God knows, if a new president were to be elected and a new attorney general appointed by
If we can't sell you marijuana today, we'll sell you marijuana tomorrow."
Dennis Peron
Cannabis club founder
the president, this whole thing could turn around in no time."
Astronauts succeed in swapping spots on shuttle, space station
Americans, Russians break bread, oranges 240 miles above Earth
The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — In what sounded like a fraternity house after a big football victory, two NASA astronauts traded places in orbit yesterday in a raucous linkup between the shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir.
John Blaha moved into the shuttle for the ride home after more than four months on Mir, while Jerry Linenger settled in aboard the orbiting Russian outpost for a similarly long adventure.
The arrival of the six Atlantis astronauts was punctured by ear-split.
ting cheers and laughter 240 miles above Earth.
The two cosmonauts aboard Mir offered bread and salt, a traditional Russian welcome. The Americans gave them a bag of oranges as well as can openers — which the Russians had requested. The gifts floated every which way.
"How about some more of that bread?" Linenger asked as the crews posed for pictures aboard Mir.
"We've been busy all day. I'm starving," said shuttle pilot Brent Jett.
After a smooth docking last night, a dead battery in a hand-held microphone slightly delayed the opening of the shuttle hatch. Blaha, who had not seen Americans face-to-face since Atlantis dropped him off in September, beckoned impatiently for the shuttle astronauts to come in.
Blaha offered a round of drinks
in foil pouches with straw and described his thrill at seeing the approaching shuttle.
"It was a shining star. It got bigger and bigger," said Blaha, 54, a former combat and test pilot. "Then, of course, the sun came up and bam! You saw the shuttle, and it was quite a beautiful sight."
The United States and Russia are the chief partners in the international space station, to be built late this year. The shuttle-Mir program is intended as a warm-up.
Atlantis and Mir will remain docked for five days so that about 6,000 pounds of supplies can be moved back and forth. The shuttle will disconnect Sunday and return to Earth Wednesday with Blaha on board.
Death interferes with man's suicide plan
The Associated Press
LINCOLN, R.I. — A man with Lou Gehrig's disease died yesterday before he could carry out his plan to kill himself to protest Rhode Island's assisted suicide ban.
Heavily sedated on morphine, Noel Earley, 48, had been hovering between a deep sleep and unconsciousness since Sunday.
Steve Ames, a longtime friend,
said Earley thought he would know when to kill himself before the disease left him too weak, but he miscalculated.
"Now, he's going to die just the way he didn't want to," Ames said, hours before Earley's death.
In September, Earley announced he would inject himself with a lethal mix of drugs on Dec. 4 to defy Rhode Island's new law that made assistance a suicide punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Earley had put off his suicide, saying the disease progressed more slowly than expected. He said he would wait until he lost his voice.
His voice was nearly gone last week when he appeared on ABC's "Nightline," answering questions by pointing to letters written on a piece of cardboard.
Guitarist's ex-wife wins divorce settlement
The Associated Press
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — One of Jerry Garcia's ex-wives, Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Garcia, won her claim to a $5 million divorce agreement yesterday in a dispute with the widow of the late Grateful Dead leader.
Garcia's widow, filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia, and six other heirs claimed that Carolyn Garcia took advantage of her drug-fogged husband, manipulating him to sign a 1993 divorce agreement giving her $250,000 a year for the next 20 years.
The guitarist paid Carolyn Garcia about $400,000 before his death from a heart attack in a drug rehob center in 1995. His widow then
stopped the payments, prompting a court fight.
Yesterday, Superior Court Judge Michael Duffy ruled in Carolyn Garcia's favor, upholding the agreement.
So far, the value of Garcia's estate remains a secret, but some have speculated that his holdings are worth millions.
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This Friday we'll talk about "Who is God?" (By the way- we don't have all the answers either.)
The Glass Onion
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Friday, January 17
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T Mattress Sets...99.95
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