Pubdate: Fri, 27 Jul 2007
Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
Copyright: 2007 The Press-Enterprise Company
Contact:  http://www.pe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830
Author: David Olson, The Press-Enterprise
Cited: Americans for Safe Access http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Americans+for+Safe+Access

POT-DISPENSARY CRACKDOWN ACTIVATES SEARCH FOR OPTIONS

As the number of medical-marijuana dispensaries in the Inland area 
dwindles, patients are looking for other options while their 
advocates try to shield them from arrest.

More than 160 members of the U.S. House of Representatives on 
Wednesday supported a proposal to end federal funding of Drug 
Enforcement Administration raids and other actions against 
medical-pot outlets. The measure was defeated.

Palm Springs officials are drafting an ordinance to allow 
medical-marijuana patients to grow pot at city-authorized collectives 
- -- despite a top federal prosecutor's warning that City Council 
members who approve such measures could be subject to federal prosecution.

As storefront outlets close, groups that offer home deliveries of 
medical pot are receiving a surge of calls from former dispensary 
patients. One Corona-based service has doubled its patient load in 
the past week.

Only two or three of the seven medical-pot outlets in Riverside and 
San Bernardino counties that were open at the beginning of the year 
are still operating, patient advocates said. One, in Palm Desert, 
will close in September under pressure from the city and another, in 
Palm Springs, is being threatened with eviction. It is unclear 
whether a third dispensary, in Palm Springs, remains open, city officials said.

California voters approved the medicinal use of marijuana in 1996. 
Under state law, people suffering from AIDS-related complications, 
cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and other diseases can use 
marijuana to relieve pain. A doctor's recommendation is required.

But marijuana use remains a federal crime. The U.S. Supreme Court 
ruled in 2005 that medical-marijuana outlets and patients can be 
prosecuted under federal law. Federal officials view state and local 
laws as inapplicable.

Last week, the DEA raided medical-marijuana outlets in Corona and 
Perris and arrested their owner. Those were two of a series of raids 
the agency has conducted at medical-pot outlets throughout the state 
since the voter initiative passed.

Landlords at Risk

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, a co-sponsor of the 
measure that would have cut off funding for the DEA raids, said 
Congress should stop the DEA from using taxpayer money to thwart the 
will of California voters and to take doctor-approved drugs away from 
sick people.

"This is the most outrageous misuse of limited funds," Rohrabacher 
said by telephone. "They should use that money in a way that will 
help us keep young people from getting involved in drugs and have a 
better understanding of the threat that drugs pose to them rather 
than basically thumbing their nose at the local electorate and 
causing great hardship for people who are physically ill."

Rohrabacher also blasted a recent DEA threat to seize the property of 
building owners who rent to marijuana dispensaries, calling it 
"abusive and arrogant."

The letter was sent to about 150 property owners in Los Angeles 
County. But a DEA spokeswoman said owners in other counties might be 
targeted next.

Shaoul Levy said he is so worried about the seizure of the Palm 
Springs building that he and four partners own that he plans to ask 
the Desert Valley Patients Association dispensary to move out. The 
medical-marijuana association signed a one-year lease for Levy's 
building in downtown Palm Springs about four months ago, the group's 
attorney said.

Levy, of Santa Monica, said that he owns a Los Angeles building that 
contains a dispensary and received one of the DEA letters. He does 
not believe he and other landlords should be dragged into disputes 
among federal, state and local officials over medical marijuana.

"They should keep the building owners out of it," he said. "They are 
holding us hostage."

Levy said he expects the patients association to fight the eviction 
notice by arguing that he is illegally breaking the lease.

Anthony Curiale, the Brea attorney for the association, said he hopes 
to work with the building's owners to resolve the problem, but added 
that a lawsuit against the owners is an option. The DEA, he said, is 
using "terror and fear tactics" to intimidate property owners.

Cities in the Fray

The patients association has problems with the city of Palm Springs 
as well. The city last year barred new dispensaries until it could 
establish medical-marijuana regulations. The two dispensaries 
existing at the time later closed.

Desert Valley violates that law, City Attorney Douglas Holland said. 
City officials are seeking to close the outlet through civil 
code-enforcement actions, he said. Curiale said the association will 
fight the city.

The draft ordinance that Palm Springs' medical-marijuana task force 
drew up last week would allow marijuana patients and their caregivers 
to form collectives that would be closed to outsiders. Only marijuana 
grown on the premises could be provided to patients. City officials 
could inspect records at any time. Other restrictions, including a 
limit on the number of members, will likely be added before the 
proposal is finalized, Holland said.

The city had not previously regulated medical-marijuana outlets.

The rules prevent abuse, including sales to non-patients, and conform 
to state law, Holland said.

Yet the proposal faces legal threats on both sides of the 
medical-marijuana issue.

The Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access, a patient-advocacy 
group, believes Palm Springs does not have the right under state law 
to establish certain restrictions, such as a limit on the number of 
members, spokesman Kris Hermes said.

The DEA, though, views all medical-marijuana dispensaries or 
collectives as illegal. Special Agent Sarah Pullen said the DEA does 
not take a city's support for medical marijuana into account when 
deciding which outlets to raid.

The chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney's Office in 
Los Angeles says city officials who allow medical-marijuana outlets 
are subject to prosecution for violating federal marijuana laws. At a 
Coachella Valley Association of Governments meeting in January, 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom O'Brien said such officials could be 
prosecuted for aiding and abetting a federal crime.

President Bush nominated O'Brien on July 12 to become U.S. attorney 
for the Los Angeles office, which covers Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Palm Springs City Councilwoman Ginny Foat, who sits on the marijuana 
task force, said O'Brien's comment makes her less likely to vote for 
a marijuana-collective ordinance, even though she strongly believes 
the city should allow people suffering from debilitating diseases to 
obtain medical marijuana.

"It has a real chilling effect," Foat said. "That was very disturbing 
to us -- that our vote would be threatened by a law-enforcement 
officer. We are trying to do what is legally right according to 
California law."

Foat asked state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a Santa Monica Democrat who 
chairs the Senate health committee, to request a legal opinion from 
Attorney General Jerry Brown's office on what sort of legal liability 
- -- if any -- public officials have.

State Senior Assistant Attorney General Rodney Lilyquist responded in 
a May 29 letter that he could not answer because medical-marijuana 
dispensaries are the subject of litigation.

Kuehl said she is unaware of any litigation involving the narrow 
question of whether public officials can be arrested for approving 
medical-marijuana ordinances. She said she would write another letter 
to Brown's office asking for a legal opinion on the matter.

"At the very least, it's lazy research," Kuehl said of the May 29 
letter. Holland called the response a "cop-out."

Deliveries Increase

As federal officials close in on remaining medical-marijuana 
dispensaries and try to prevent cities from allowing the 
establishment of new ones, some patients are turning to 
medical-marijuana delivery services.

Medical-marijuana Web sites list more than a dozen delivery services 
that serve the Inland area.

The Corona operator of one service, Holistic Alternative Inc., said 
her patient list has doubled since last week's raids in Corona and 
Perris. She declined to give her full name for fear of arrest by 
federal officials.

The woman, who said she uses marijuana to relieve pain from severe 
arthritis, said she had about 20 patients until the July 17 Corona 
raid. She said that since then she has been receiving three to five 
patient inquiries a day and has had to turn away patients because she 
does not have enough marijuana.

"The people we serve are very ill," said the woman, who said she 
established the service about six months ago. "We have 
multiple-sclerosis patients who can barely leave their homes."

She said Holistic Alternative is a nonprofit collective of patients 
that obtains marijuana from members who grow it. She said she has 
delivered to patients as far away as Blythe.

The group contacts doctors to verify patients' eligibility for 
medical marijuana before delivery, and checks identification cards 
and original copies of doctors' letters at patients' doors, she said.

The woman said she is willing to take legal risks because she wants 
to help other patients. But, she said, she does not believe the 
relatively small amount of marijuana she stores will make her a DEA target.

"If the federal government has the time to waste getting the four 
ounces I may keep at my house, let them waste it," she said.

Even though patients have turned to delivery services for help, some 
are wary of them, said Ryan Michaels, a Riverside member of the 
Patient Advocacy Network, which assists medical-marijuana patients.

Many patients feel more comfortable going to dispensaries because 
they have a professional medical atmosphere, and the patients can 
scrutinize the operations more closely to ensure they comply with 
state law, he said.

Some patients fear that undercover police may be behind some delivery 
services, said Summer Glenney, of San Jacinto, Inland Empire field 
coordinator for the advocacy network.

Pullen, the DEA agent, said the agency is aware of the delivery 
services. Pullen said she knows of no past federal action against 
them but said that they are illegal and could be subject to 
prosecution at any time. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake