Second, it is clear that the city of Oakland is committed to taking care of its citizens – a novel concept in government. However, for all the talk, the city of San Francisco is yet to act on behalf of its many medical marijuana users.

The various state medical marijuana initiatives are now even more important in keeping the issue alive. What they will do to keep patients alive is another matter.)

End may be near for embattled Calif. marijuana clubs

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct 14 (Reuters) - The end may be near for California’s embattled medical marijuana movement.

In a surprise injunction, a federal judge this week ordered the state’s most respected medical marijuana club to close by Friday for violating federal narcotics laws.

And the two other clubs still struggling to distribute the drug under the terms of California’s 1996 state law which legalized medical marijuana use are under similar pressure.

In an emergency news conference called Wednesday, Oakland city officials and patients of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative said U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer’s decision against the club would have a devastating effect.

"This decision will have a devastating impact on our patients and our city and we will fight it every step of the way."

Breyer’s decision issued late Tuesday ordered the Oakland club to close by Friday or face forcible closure by federal marshals. While lawyers say they plan to appeal the decision, it marks a shattering defeat in their long effort to uphold the clubs’ right to provide marijuana to sick people.

Breyer, while noting that closing the club would likely cause "human suffering," said club lawyers had failed to demonstrate that enforcing a federal ban on marijuana distribution would violate the constitutional right of sick people to relieve excruciating pain—a cornerstone of the medical marijuana movement’s legal strategy.

The order to close the Oakland club came as a particular blow. Boasting some 2,000 members and bright, downtown offices that resemble a pharmacy, the Oakland cooperative has been repeatedly praised by health officials as one of the most responsible marijuana distribution organizations to emerge since voters passed the state law in 1996.

That law, which allowed patients to use marijuana under a doctor’s prescription, drew immediate fire from federal officials, who have mounted a legal campaign to shut the medical marijuana clubs for violating federal narcotics laws.

Ten of an original 13 clubs up and down the state have already closed under the federal pressure. But three clubs, including the Oakland group and another in northern California’s Marin County, have continued to operate while they fight on in court.

Breyer’s ruling said the Oakland club had violated an injunction issued earlier this year which directed it to stop distributing marijuana to patients who say it eases nausea, wasting, and chronic pain associated with cancer, AIDS, chemotherapy, and other conditions.

He also ordered lawyers for the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax to schedule a jury trial to determine whether their group had violated the same injunction.

Lawyers for the Oakland club vowed to fight Breyer’s order, which they said was based on a "legal technicality".

"Even though our members testified that medical cannabis has actually saved their lives, they didn’t say they would die tomorrow without medical cannabis," said lawyer Robert Raich.

"As a result, over 2,000 people may lose their access to a necessary and life-saving medicine."

But with legal clouds gathering, medical marijuana supporters are already considering their fallback positions.