CANNABIS CLUB AWAITS OUTCOME OF BEL-AIR RAID.

Byline: Theresa Moreau Daily News Staff Writer

Amid the glitz of West Hollywood, there are many exclusive clubs, but just one where not anyone can become a member.

The main criteria of joining the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers' Club is singular in nature - a debilitating disease that requires marijuana to ease pain, boost appetite or provide other therapy.

``It's a nice club if you need it, but who wants to have the preconditions to get in?'' asked Scott Imler, founder of the club, which is housed in an airy second-floor loft above an auto garage on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Imler officially opened the club Nov. 5, 1996, the day California voters passed Proposition 215, which allows marijuana use for medicinal reasons with the backing of a physician.

On Tuesday the club has reached another important benchmark: The arrest of Bel-Air resident Todd McCormick who is accused of growing 4,116 pot plants that he contends is his right under the ballot initiative.

McCormick was not a member of the club and did not supply it with marijuana, but his arrest is expected to test the legal boundaries of Proposition 215, which could change how the club does business - and whether it does business.

``Standards are going to be set for what's going to be acceptable and unacceptable for what the provision means under Proposition 215,'' he said.

At the same time, Imler and others are concerned that the arrest could wipe out the club's work to earn the trust of law enforcement and operate under the initiative. The club was raided in 1996, two months before Proposition 215 was adopted, but since then it has operated without trouble from the law.

``Stuff like this risks ruining it for all of us,'' Imler said.

Further, Imler said he was unsure of McCormick's motives. ``The scope of Todd's operation was huge, and in my mind it was one more example of a `potrepreneur' trying to cash in in the wake of 215,'' Imler said.

The rules are strict for prospective members: Each must present a letter of recommendation from a doctor, which must be able to be verified.

There now are 580 members, all card carriers and all sick. By midafternoon the day's first members began climbing the long staircase to the club.

At the front door, one ashen-faced man suffering from AIDS, and shaking so badly he needed help to climb up the stairs, presented his identification to fellow members.

``You look great today,'' said Jay Fritz, who screens all potential members.

``Marijuana is God's medicine,'' Fritz said. ``And this is not a party house. We're here for a reason - medical marijuana.''

Soon others followed, including a 56-year-old woman, a former city worker for the city of Pasadena, who suffers from a disease in which her nervous system is slowly deteriorating.

After walking into the club, she picked up a menu of the week's offerings, made her selection, then walked up to the window where pharmacist Jeff Farrington handed her a pink container with buds of Ultra Red Seven - $20 per gram for the high quality, best of crop, and high content of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.