The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 6

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER Mary Police memo blasts LA. rioit response A1 I I I A 1 i ft 1 I Li Mary Rathbun says she was baking marijuana brownies to help AIDS patients sickened by chemotherapy. 1 Thurdy, July 23, 1992 arrested 70-year-old explains she bakes pot-laced confections to ease suffering of AIDS patients By Larry D.Hatfield OF THE EXAMINER STAFF "Brownie Mary," the 70-year-old ex-waitress who gained notori-. ety for peddling marijuana-laced brownies in the Castro a decade ago, has been busted again. This time, she says, she was making pot brownies for dying AIDS patients.

"This time I wasn't in it for the bucks," said Mary Rathbun, who admitted she was baking for profit when San Francisco police arrested her in 1981. "This time I'm doing it for my kids kids with AIDS, undergoing chemotherapy and in a lot of pain. Marijuana helps them." Rathbun and Steve Rider, 37, were arrested Tuesday in a raid by federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Sonoma County authorities on Rider's Cazadero home. They were charged with possession of less than two pounds of marijuana for sale. Authorities described Rider as a dealer.

Rathbun said she was visiting Rider, to whom she is not related but describes as her son. She said she had been baking marijuana brownies when deputies descended on the house. "They were after Steve, not me," Rathbun said. "They didn't expect to find me up there making A-6 ble radios. However, the bulk of the internal criticism focused on lack of training and the inability of officers at all levels to understand their duties.

At the time of the riots, then-' Police Chief Daryl F. Gates blamed, a lieutenant for the department's inept response to the first signs of trouble. But as criticism later mounted, Deputy Chief Matt Hunt on May 12 had aides solicit critiques from officers who directed the riot response. Written responses from an known number of officers, whose-names were kept confidential, were compiled in a nine-page document, titled, "Command Post Cadre tiques." The police command post, a city transit bus, "was too congested," which "contributed to the confusion and forced CP cadres to work in chaotic conditions," the critiques said. When the rioting began, Gates didn't assume command, but instead went to a fund-raiser dinner.

"Thousands of hours" were wasted as officers sat around waiting for orders, while collecting time-and-a-half pay, one critique said. Hunt told the newspaper that at command-staff meetings during the trial of the four officers, he pressed Gates several times to prepare for trouble. Gates insisted all necessary preparations had been made, he said. Internal document says cops were unprepared, poorly equipped to handle post-King mayhem ASSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA Officers in charge of quelling the riots fol- lowing the Rodney King verdict didn't know what to do, sat around waiting for orders and worked conditions," an internal police report said. Complaints quoted in the confidential report, obtained by Philadelphia Inquirer from non-police sources and published Thursday, paint a portrait of chaos at the Los Angeles Police Department's Field Command Post throughout the three days of rioting.

At least 52 people died in the riots that began April 29 after a jury cleared four white officers of beating King, who is black. Property damage was estimated at $800 million. Critics of the police depart-, ment's response say officers were slow to try to quell disturbances in the early hours of the riot, allowing it to mushroom. The document cites shortages of -materials, including too few police cars, computers, maps and porta mm EXAMINERFRAN ORTIZ When she was convicted of selling her "magically delicious" marijuana brownies in 1981, Brownie Mary was given three years' probation after pleading guilty to nine drug counts. In 1983 the court tacked on an extra 200 hours of community service for violating her probation after she was arrested for having four dozen pot-laced brownies she said she had baked for a friend suffering from chemotherapy treatments for cancer.

injures parking officer and released Wednesday evening, a nursing supervisor said. An underground transformer short-circuited and caught fire, causing a nearby manhole cover to pop off around 5 p.m., according to a Fire Department spokesman. Pa-' cific Gas Electric and fire crews arrived at the scene shortly after the explosion. AO- If brownies. I was just a bonus for them.

It was a helluva time for my visit." She said she baked marijuana brownies for "my kids" three or four times a year. "I get a little marijuana every once in a while," said Rathbun, who said she used pot to ease pain in her arthritic knees. She is a vocal advocate of legal marijuana use for medicinal purposes. "I save it up until I've got enough to make 20 dozen brownies for my kids," she said. Rathbun, who said she lived on $650 a month on Social Security, said she could afford to provide the marijuana brownies only to 15 AIDS patients.

Some doctors say marijuana eases pain and nausea and provides a needed stimulant to appetite among AIDS sufferers. "I'd like to do it for all of them, but I cant," she said. "I do what I can for the worst." Rathbun and Rider were freed on $5,000 bail each and are to appear in court in Santa Rosa on Aug. 4. Rathbun and other proponents of medicinal marijuana use are scheduled to appear that same day before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to call for more action to implement Prop.

the measure overwhelmingly approved by San Francisco voters last year to add I pot to California's list of approved medicines. "I was 19 when I first smoked dope, and I've been fighting this battle ever since," a defiant Rathbun said. "Pot could help these kids who are in real, deep pain. I see it every goddamned day of my life, I see them wasting away. It doesn't make sense (that) we can am.

$57.6 million refund, cut in rates due from Pac Bell spend $500 million on losing the war on drugs, and we can't take a -little step to help these people in pain." In her latest bust, Rathbun is adamant she was doing no wrong, even though she was using marijuana in her baking. "My kids need this," said the retired waitress, "and I'm ready to go to jail for my principles. I'm not going to cut any deals with them (the prosecu- -tors). If I go to jail, I go to jail. I'm 70 years old.

I can handle jail." Flying manhole cover EXAMINER STAFF REPORT A parking control officer was injured slightly when a manhole blew its top at 57 Post St. Wednesday afternoon. The officer, whose name was not released, was taken to St. Francis Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for a minor abrasion Wtu.I f3 1 1 1 1 ii Present this on any full, Spring MATTRESS DISCOJINTERS ansa 2 i cin i lTJ nil 1 tXIM tie 3 is i 2s: mm. FT, HEAVY DUTY STEEL BEDFRAME DELIVERY coupon and receive free delivery queen, or king size Beautyrest or Air Back Supporter mattress set FREE DOJVERY WITHIN A 20 MILE RADIUS Of STORE DlflC Present this coupon and receive 1 Present this coupon and receive an additional $40 off the price ot 1 an additional $60 off the price of any twin size mattress set.

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