BROWN REVIEWING MEDICINAL POT USE : S.F. MAYOR CALLS OFF EMERGENCY PROPOSAL.

Byline: Diana Walsh San Francisco Examiner

Mayor Willie Brown Jr. has backed away from a proposal to declare a citywide state of emergency allowing marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, saying such action could put the city's needle exchange program in legal jeopardy.

And in an apparent move to distance himself from the Cannabis Buyers' Club, which was raided and shut down by state narcotics agents earlier this month, Brown said city officials are trying to work out an agreement with the state Attorney General's Office to let another organization distribute the illegal drug to the sick.

``If they say that it can't be done with the Cannabis Club (and) it has to be done with some other organization that's free of any taint, then we'll do that,'' Brown said at a news conference last week.

The Cannabis Buyers' Club was set up to provide marijuana to people suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other life-threatening illnesses for which the drug has been found to relieve some symptoms and the side effects of treatment.

But state authorities say a lengthy investigation found the club frequently sold the drug to minors and those with no medical need for it.

The mayor, who last week said he stood behind the idea of declaring emergency protection for medicinal pot use, said he changed his mind after talking to members of the Police Commission and Health Department officials.

Brown said city officials fear ``that if we bundle the medical emergency around cannabis and there is a (successful legal challenge) on that, it will spill over and adversely impact the effective needle exchange program.''

The mayor said Police Commissioner Pat Norman and Public Health Director Sandra Hernandez are working to find an alternative organization to the Cannabis Buyers' Club.

The City Attorney's Office could not be reached for comment but is expected to give its opinion on the medicinal use issue at a Board of Supervisors hearing soon.

Declaring a medical emergency ``may be something that we can't do,'' said Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who initially asked city health officials to consider declaring the emergency. ``If the mayor has a problem, the city attorney has a problem and the director of health has a problem, those are all (opinions) we would consider.''

Distributing needles to drug users is against state law. But for the past three years, the city has used the cloak of a health emergency to allow health workers and AIDS activists to hand out sterile needles to intravenous drug users to cut their high risk of contracting AIDS.

Hernandez said the needle exchange program ``is a legitimate and well-founded basis for declaring a public health emergency.''