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PRESCRIPTION FOR CHANGE / With 43 medical marijuana dispensaries in San Franci... Page 6 of 8 "It really isn't that easy to get," she said. Martin King is HIV -positive, but said his doctor at the Magic Johnson clinic would not sign a recommendation and he instead went to a doctor's co-op for approval. He buys his marijuana from MendoHealing, a club near 11 th and Howard streets that has been the subject of recent complaints. "This helps me a lot. Who wants to be buying stuff off the street? You don't get the quality, you don't get the quantity. These people are a godsend, " King said. MendoHealing's plain brown interior with rows of chairs predominantly occupied by the sick, poor and elderly resembles a Social Security Administration office, though young and healthy people are there, too. On a recent day, 13 people waited in line while the Beatles' "Revolution" played on the stereo. No smoking is allowed inside or in the immediate vicinity. Twice a week, the club gives out what are known as "compassion joints," which are free marijuana cigarettes for poor patients and are a common feature of clubs. Several hundred people, cards in hand, line up outside MendoHealing on compassion mornings. The club grows its own supply of marijuana in Mendocino County, which keeps costs down and profits high, said club manager Alan Novey. "There's money being made, no question," he said. Other club owners, relying as they do on vendors who operate like door-to- door salesmen, say they do not make huge profits, and some, like Noah Tao Lundling, who operates an Ocean A venue club, struggle to break even. Lundling's supply comes from patient-growers who frequent the club. He takes a percentage ofthe sale, and they get the rest. "We only take 4 ounces from one person at a time. We're staying out of the big-grow operations. If organized crime tried to get involved, it wouldn't be worth their time," said Lundling, 24. While Novey's club makes a large profit, he said he gives back to the community. Every month the club donates $1,000 to the San Francisco Food Bank, he said, and the club helps buy educational supplies for a San Francisco classroom it has adopted. "We are committed to giving large sums of money to the community, not just taking the money and running," he said. But the club's popularity -- especially during evening rush hour and compassion joint mornings -- has infuriated nearby residents who say the club has ruined the quiet neighborhood that is tucked away between busy city streets. "I would be real happy if they left. They've dramatically changed the atmosphere," said Steve Miller, who owns nine units on Lafayette Street. There is constant traffic and patients often double-park while inside the club, neighbors http:/ /sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi ?file=/c/a/2005/04/24/MNGDTCEA9Hl.DTL&type=pr... 4/29/2005