(Ed. note: The Bee’s coverage on the medical marijuana issue has been better than their editorial policy. It is interesting that it picked up this wire story. It is important, but so is much else that goes unreported.)

PROSECUTORS WANT MARIJUANA COOP PATIENT RECORDS
June 30, 1998

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- A medical marijuana co-op will resist Orange County prosecutors’ efforts to obtain health records of hundreds of people who use the drug for pain, a defense attorney said.

Kennedy said he would ask a judge to quash subpoena requests for members’ medical records at a July 10 hearing in Santa Ana. The co-op has about 200 members.

Proposition 215, a 1996 initiative, changed state law to allow patients with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other illnesses to possess and grow marijuana for medical use with a doctor’s recommendation. Federal authorities have resisted its implementation.

The Orange County case is one of several legal battles that have resulted.

Deputy District Attorney Carl Armbrust, head of Orange County’s Narcotics Enforcement team, said he doubted whether a physician was involved with the cannabis co-op. He called Chavez a "street peddler.

But said also said he believes that Proposition 215 is flawed.

"The law is poorly written," Armbrust said Tuesday. "But it’s still the law."

Co-op members, many of them elderly, come from all walks of life, Kennedy said. Many turned away from regular painkillers because of the side effects, he said.