Bay City News, SF Gate

Tuesday, February 12, 2001 San Francisco prosecutors are expressing concern about a marijuana raid carried out at a cannabis club in the city today by federal drug agents. An Oakland club was also raided. Five people were arrested, including the proprietor of the San Francisco club and one person in Canada.

San Francisco District Attorney's Office spokesman Fred Gardner said he could supply only a few details, but confirmed that agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration apparently moved in on a Sixth Street club located between Market and Mission streets early this morning.

The agents also raided the Oakland house of Ed Rosenthal, a marijuana book author who was believed to be operating a club from his house, sources said.

In November, San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan held a news conference in support of a Northern California doctor whose offices had been raided by DEA agents and specifically warned federal officials to stay away from a city that has for years supported physician-authorized use of medicinal marijuana.

"Lay off our marijuana clubs,'' Hallinan said at the time. He said that since the passage of state Proposition 215 five years ago the city's system - in which seriously ill patients whose doctors feel they can benefit from marijuana to reduce pain or increase appetite receive official identification cards - is working.

But federal officials may take a different view of the situation. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative that federal anti-drug laws do not permit an exception for these types of marijuana uses.