SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – It was business as usual at the Love Shack after the Supreme Court ruling came down. A steady stream of customers filed past a security guard into the small storefront, where they could buy $5 pot brownies or spend up to 20 minutes inhaling premium marijuana that sells for $320 an ounce.

One of at least 43 medical marijuana clubs in San Francisco, the Love Shack was open for anybody who could flash a city-issued cannabis card. Crime fighters in California and other states with medical marijuana laws insisted they were not about to start looking for reasons to shut down the dispensaries, despite the political cover the court ruling provides.

In a 6-3 decision June 6, the justices ruled that federal authorities can prosecute medical marijuana users, even where state laws allow ailing people to smoke pot to ease their pain along with the growers who cultivate pot for them.

“I’m a little bit shaken…,” said Dwion Gates, 48, sitting on a stool next to a pair of bongs at the Love Shack, where he comes regularly to buy marijuana to treat the pain from a bullet that has been lodged in his back since 1983. “I’m hoping that San Francisco will continue to be the compassionate place it has been in allowing places like this to exist legally.”

In California and the nine other states that allow medical marijuana use with a doctor’s recommendation, nobody in law enforcement appeared eager to make headlines arresting ailing citizens. Oregon stopped issuing medical marijuana cards on the day of the ruling, but elsewhere officials assured the public the situation was status quo.

“People shouldn’t panic. There aren’t going to be many changes,” California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said. “Nothing is different today than it was two days ago, in terms of real world impact.”

It remains to be seen whether the Drug Enforcement Administration will crack down on medical marijuana users. The Justice Department didn’t comment, and Oregon was the only state where officials said they would make an immediate change because of the ruling.

The states with laws allowing medical marijuana use are Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state. Arizona has a law allowing medical marijuana, but no active program.

Officials in seven of those 10 states reassured residents that no changes to enforcing the law or granting permission to new users were planned. Oregon temporarily halted issuing medical marijuana cards until health officials could review the court ruling. Colorado officials also were reviewing the decision and said no decision had yet been made on whether they would continue issuing certificates. In Alaska, marijuana already has been effectively decriminalized with residents allowed to possess four ounces for personal use.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has previously supported medical marijuana use, said “it is now up to Congress to provide clarity for not only California, but the other states that already have laws recognizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.”

In many places, local police rarely enforce marijuana laws, especially when it involves arresting sick people. Federal arrests of ailing patients who smoke pot also have been exceedingly rare, said Paul Armentano, a senior policy analyst with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Pot club operators and their patients noted that medical marijuana dispensaries have continued to proliferate despite occasional high-profile raids by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that the federal government could prosecute distributors who claimed their activity was protected by medical necessity.

“We’ve been through this before. If they have to close down for a while, they might, but they would open right up again because patients rely on it,” AIDS patient Juan Muniz, 40, said in between drags on a pipe at the Love Shack as reggae music played in the background.

Ericka Montana, 25, who opened the Love Shack in 2002 with her two brothers, said the ruling made her feel as if she and her siblings were operating on slightly less firmer legal ground, but that they had no plans to close the facility.

“This should not put a damper on the movement. It’s time for us to stand strong and do what we know is right. We’ve gotten this far,” Montana said.

Other dispensaries in the San Francisco Bay area weren’t as optimistic. Several refused to comment on the ruling and what it might mean.

The ruling makes Valerie Corral nervous. Corral operates a 150-plant pot farm in Santa Cruz County, providing marijuana for free to about 165 seriously ill members. The high court’s decision “leaves us protecting ourselves from a government that should be protecting us,” she said.

Jon Sullivan, a spokesperson for Triple Holistic Chronic, a medical marijuana dispensary in San Diego, said the losers in the ruling are patients who depend on pot to ease chronic pain.

“If the federal government wants to raid us, all they’re doing is cutting off very needy people and forcing them to become criminals,” Sullivan said. “The last thing you want when you’re sick is to buy a baggie from a shady character on the street.”