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<br />ALAMEDA COUNTY / Supervisor.../ Fairmont Hospital would dispense medical marijuan Page 1 of2 <br />srGate.com YfWw.sfgate.com <br />Re:tlJJIl_JQ_re:g1JJ~r.Yie:.w <br />ALAMEDACQUNTY <br />fuIperyiso~l!roposes county-run <br />pot clinic <br />EailJllont llospitJll WOI!l!l dispense <br />lI1edi~al.lI1arijual111 <br />- !;:,d-'l_H_;:Illl$"$y',_.c_hr!;HJ,,_GJ~LShlftWriteI <br />Tuesday, May 10, 2005 <br />Al.ameda County could become the <br />first public entity in the nation to run <br />a medical marijuana clinic at a <br />government hospital if a majority of <br />county supervisors agrees to a <br />proposal that Sheriff Charles Plummer -- an opponent of medicinal. pot -- called a <br />brilliant idea. <br />Supervisor Nate Miley proposed at a committee hearing Monday that the county open a <br />medical. marijuana dispensary at Fairmont Hospital. in San Leandro as an alternative to <br />private or nonprofit clubs that sometimes run afoul. of residents or businesses concerned <br />about I.oitering and other nuisances. <br />"It is the right thing to do," Miley said after he and Supervisor Scott Haggerty directed <br />the county's counsel to draft either an ordinance to permit the publicly run clinic or new <br />regul.ations on the number and operating practices of private clinics. "If it's medical, let's <br />put it in a hospital setting. Let the county go about doing it. It just makes sense to me." <br />Haggerty agreed the fun board shoul.d be all.owed to consider the idea, which win come <br />before it May 24. But he expressed skepticism over medical marijuana and said he <br />beI.ieves there is rampant abuse of regul.ations at pot clubs. <br />"We call it medical, yet we don't distribute it through pharmacies," Haggerty said. <br />Even if the county's Board of Supervisors approves the idea, the federal government <br />could swiftly move to quash the clinic. <br />"Marijuana is illegal to cultivate, to possess and to distribute," said Drug Enforcement <br />Administration agent Richard Meyer. "The Controlled Substances Act doesn't make any <br />exceptions" for medical marijuana. <br />The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected medical uses of marijuana and is expected to rule <br />soon on whether federal bans on the drug override laws in California and nine other <br />states that allow marijuana use with a doctor's recommendation. The case got a frosty <br />reception from some justices during oral arguments in November. <br />Haggerty said he will not endorse a county-run marijuana clinic, unless the federal <br />government sanctions it. <br />http://sfgate.com/cgi-binlarticle.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/. ../BAG5VCMKD II.DTL&type=printabl 5/11/2005 <br />