Pubdate: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 Source: Bakersfield Californian, The (CA) Copyright: 2010 The Bakersfield Californian Contact: http://www.bakersfield.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/36 Author: James Burger Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Dispensaries Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) SUPERVISORS POISED TO FREEZE POT COLLECTIVES AMID PROLIFERATION Supervisors will consider Tuesday freezing the number of new medical marijuana cooperatives in Kern County for at least 45 days while they consider whether to regulate the 22 that have exploded onto the scene in the past year. In March 2009, supervisors repealed an ordinance that had limited the number of medical marijuana dispensaries allowed in Kern County to six. None of them liked the decision. All worried it would bring more medical marijuana businesses, organized as collectives, to Kern County. But they felt pressure on several fronts to act. Growing business There are 19 medical marijuana co-ops and collectives in the county areas of metropolitan Bakersfield. They are tucked into strip malls and shop buildings in east, south and northwest Bakersfield and in Oildale. Two more are in Lake Isabella; one sits in Mojave. From the outside most look nondescript, even abandoned. But subtle hints of green -- a cross, an arrow or the numbers of the street address -- bear subtle witness to what lies inside. The Kern River Collective just south of Trout's on North Chester Avenue in Oildale has windows painted with beach scenes, looking more pet shop than pot shop. But the small green crossed white flag atop the sand castle on a side window clues medical marijuana patients there is a pharmacy in the building. Other cooperatives celebrate their presence. The sign for California's Best Co-op, just a couple of blocks closer to the Kern River on North Chester, is visible from a distance and painted green crosses fill the two windows facing out onto Oildale's main drag. New rules Supervisor Mike Maggard asked county lawyers to investigate new regulation of cooperatives earlier this month. All the supervisors worried, then, that eliminating the ordinance would open the door to a flood of new medical marijuana venues and bring crime to neighborhoods. But federal officials had stopped raiding medical marijuana shops after President Barack Obama took office and guidelines established by the California Attorney General's office made it clear that non-profit collectives or cooperatives could distribute pot legally under state law. In addition, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood refused to participate in an ordinance that required his office to permit medical marijuana operations. "That put the board in a tough situation," Youngblood said. So supervisors killed the ordinance. Now, with 22 businesses operational, supervisors will rethink their decision. Maggard said he is interested in limiting clusters of collectives -- four sit in a less than two-mile stretch of North Chester, bookending Standard Elementary and Middle schools. But there are many other rules on the table. "It's appropriate for us to call for a moratorium on more (collectives)," he said. Steve Esselman, who lives near two of the Oildale collectives, said he supports new rules. "If they can't shut them down, perhaps they put a limit on how many there are in one area," he said. "Whether to legalize it or not, I don't really have an opinion. I'm just a guy who doesn't want his kids saturated by dispensaries when they ride down the street on their bicycles." Inside story Kern County Medicinal Collective is perched in a new strip of office space on Pegasus Drive amid radio stations and industrial businesses. The lobby is clean and well-lit with an armed security guard and water, sodas and snacks for members. Operation manager Jarrod Jarvis said the member-owned, non-profit business spent months talking to lawyers, Kern County sheriff's deputies and the Attorney General's office about the state's medical marijuana laws and the practical legalities of operating a collective before they opened their doors. The collective hosted sheriff's narcotics team leaders for an hour-long inspection when they opened and keep an open-door policy with law enforcement. Jarvis said the goal is to make sure there aren't grounds for officers to close the collective and arrest the employees. "We're here to try and co-exist," he said. Members grow the marijuana and it is only given to members who donate money to keep the business running. Four staff members are paid for their work and the business can maintain only $50,000 in profit as an operating reserve. Any other profit, Jarvis said, is given to charities in Kern County. So far Kern County Medicinal has donated 15,000 pounds of canned food to the Alliance Against Family Violence and nearly 1,000 toys to the Alliance and Mercy Hospital, he said. Jarvis said they believe they are following the law. But he and other collective employees and volunteers said they can never be sure they won't be targeted by a law enforcement raid. "That could happen any day," he said. "I'm not up all night about it. If it happens it happens." Larry Burch lost both of his legs in a motorcycle accident in October. He has been prescribed traditional medicine for the pain he continues to suffer, but he said nothing is as good as marijuana. "Society itself has always taught that marijuana is bad. It's not. It's the best thing going," he said. Criminal matter When the first cooperatives opened in Bakersfield after the repeal of the county ordinance, the Sheriff's Department raided the operators of California Compassionate Co-op and Green Cross Compassionate Co-op. Charges are still pending in Kern County Superior Court. Law enforcement action triggered a backlash. Attorney Phil Ganong has brought a civil rights lawsuit against Kern County on behalf of the members of California Compassionate, saying Kern County's sheriff is not allowed to ignore the state law that made medical marijuana legal just because he doesn't agree with it. Sheriff Youngblood still believes that all the 22 cooperatives and collectives are illegal -- even under state law. "To abide by the law you've got to be a non-profit, (have a) limited number of plants, limited amount of pot and a caregiver," he said. "When you start advertising, in my opinion, you are a dispensary. Dispensaries are illegal." Deputy District Attorney Michael Yraceburn said the caregiver role is required by law. A caregiver is, Yraceburn said, "someone who is intimately part of the medical care and housing of a person who has a recommendation (not prescribed) for the use of marijuana." But California Attorney General Brown's opinion on California's medical marijuana law states that member groups can share medical marijuana within the collective as long as the organization is a non-profit. "No way could a qualified patient designate a cooperative as a caregiver," Ganong said. But "there's no debate that a qualified caregiver can go to a cooperative to obtain medicine." Final word Supervisors will attempt to wade into the sticky legal situation Tuesday. Ganong, far from disagreeing, believes a fair attempt at adding new rules will benefit everyone. "We need to have a consortium of concerned interests to have a memorandum of understanding or some policy agreement so that cooperatives have some certainty," he said. "Let's sit together and have a meaningful conversation and come up with some regulations that make sense." Jarvis, of Kern County Medicinal, said the moratorium on new collectives and cooperatives is definitely an action supervisors must take. Los Angeles has limited the number of collectives and cooperatives allowed there, he said, and Kern County real estate offices are being flooded by calls from former L.A. operators looking for a new home in Kern. "If the county doesn't put a set limitation on this -- a reasonable number -- this time next year there are going to be more than 150 here," Jarvis said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom