Key West Cannabis Buyers' Club Founder To Appear In Court - Will Present First Ever "Medical Necessity Distribution Defense

The founder of a Key West club that distributed medical marijuana to seriously ill patients who possessed a physician's recommendation will appear in court on December 8 to face felony marijuana charges.

Zvi Baranoff, who ran the approximately 60 member club until August 1996, remains hopeful that a jury will acquit the charges against him. Legal analysts speculate that the verdict may have national significance.

Baranoff says he will raise a "defense of medical necessity" against the marijuana distribution charges. Last September, Judge Richard Payne ruled that Baranoff could legally raise the unique defense.

"The rational for the marijuana medical necessity distribution defense is this: If a person has a medical necessity for marijuana, then he has a right to use it and a right to buy it -- and therefore, there should be a right for someone to coordinate access," Baranoff explained. He noted that his attorney, NORML Legal Committee Member Norm Kent, won a 1988 legal victory which affirmed a glaucoma patient's right to use marijuana as a medicine.

The Key West club, known locally as the Medical Cannabis Advocates of Key West (MCA), operated publicly for 14 months before being raided by law enforcement on August 14, 1996. Both Baranoff and club member Jamie Levario were charged with second-degree felony possession and distribution of marijuana. In a February 19 court ruling, Judge Payne dismissed charges against both men contingent upon Baranoff's participation in a Pre-Trial Intervention Program. When Department of Corrections officials refused to allow Baranoff to complete the program, prosecutors revived the charges against him. No charges were reinstituted against Levario.

"If I'm guilty, let them put me in jail," Baranoff told reporters in March. "If I'm not, and I believe that I'm not, let's get this thing over with."

For more information, please contact either the Medical Cannabis Advocates at (305) 293-0190 or Attorney Norm Kent at (954) 763-1900.