Pot Shots

The Marimed Referral Service on the east side of Santa Cruz exudes the edgy yet laid-back atmosphere you'd expect from an operation that occupies "Suite M for Marijuana," as Marimed director William Malphrus jokes. This is where Malphrus and his associates match doctors willing to do physical evaluations and make medical marijuana recommendations with patients who believe they qualify for the benefits of the Proposition 215-approved green stuff.

Recently, Malphrus, who favors loud shirts and speaks with a distinct Georgian drawl, has kept a low profile for fear his organization would be targeted for working in an area that is legal under California's medical marijuana law, but increasingly under fire from the feds.

But that reticence burned off like so much summer fog when the Bush administration announced this month that it wants the Supreme Court's permission to strip prescription licenses from doctors who recommend medical marijuana--an activity U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson called "no different from recommending heroin or LSD."

That's the kind of cartoonishly right-wing comment that gets medical marijuana activists fired up. Malphrus scoffs, saying marijuana is "God given, unlike heroin and LSD--not to mention cocaine and crack--which are man-made."

But to him, that kind of government rhetoric is nothing new. Nor are the threats against doctors who recommend marijuana for medicinal purposes.

When Prop. 215 passed in 1996, the Clinton administration announced that doctors who recommended medical marijuana faced losing their federal licenses to prescribe medicine. But in January 1997, doctors and patients statewide filed a class action suit against the feds, alleging the federal threat violated their free speech rights under the First Amendment.

In September of 2000, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that doctors can recommend marijuana to patients who may benefit from it without fear that the feds will strip them of their licenses to prescribe medicine, or otherwise impose sanctions. In his decision, Judge Alsup expanded and made permanent a previously granted temporary injunction that prevented the feds from revoking a doctor's license to prescribe medicine.

But now, the feds are arguing that Alsup's decision prevents the DEA from protecting the public, and licenses doctors to treat patients with illegal drugs. Their request to strip doctors of their licenses would gut medical marijuana laws and hurt doctor-patient relationships--and according to seasoned medical marijuana activists, doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell.

"The Supreme Court has so many requests, it's doubtful they'd revisit the issue of a doctor's right to prescribe medical marijuana, and they certainly cannot do anything that will impede a doctor's income," says Malphrus.

Either way, the threat hasn't put a damper on Malphrus' referral service.

"We have doctors lined up from Santa Barbara to San Francisco, and since October 2002, we've signed up almost 1,600 new patients," he says.

That translates to about 200 new matches a month and includes, according to Malphrus, "veterans who fought for our country and were wounded, cops from other counties and a big-time Catholic priest."

Business may be good, but Malphrus insists he ain't getting rich on these transactions.

"You're allowed to recoup your investment and cover your overheads," he says, pointing to his modest office where a couple of assistants answer phones and help do background checks. "But if you're doing it legitimately, you're not getting rich."

Malphrus also insists that unlike some medical marijuana clubs "where people can walk in and say they have a back problem," people who get referrals through Marimed have to have been seeing a doctor for their condition and have a complete paper trail about their medical situation.