Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2012
Source: Long Beach Post (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Long Beach Post
Contact:  http://www.lbpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5286
Author: Greggory Moore

FEDS DENY LBPD CLAIM REGARDING MEDPOT BAN

During last Tuesday's city council meeting, Long Beach Police 
Department Chief Jim McDonnell made several arguments in favor of the 
City's ban of medical-marijuana dispensaries, including one stating 
the need for a complete ban in order to obtain federal aid.

"If we were able to get the ban, we then are allowed to get on the 
list to be able to work with the U.S. Attorney and the DEA to be able 
to do asset forfeiture, to be able to seize the assets of those that 
are selling within the city," said McDonnell. "We can't do that as 
long as we have the two-tiered system where the City has somewhat 
sanctioned the 18 [dispensaries] and not the rest."

But according to those two federal agencies, McDonnell's claim is untrue.

"There's no 'list' that we have," said DEA Media Relations Officer 
Jose Martinez when questioned about McDonnell's quote. "It sounds 
like it's an internal issue."

While a United States Attorneys' Office representative did 
acknowledge that it may prioritize expending resources in cities that 
have a complete ban over cities that allow for medpot use, he 
directly contradicted McDonnell's claim.

"There is no specific 'list,'" said Thom Mrozek, spokesperson for the 
Central District of California U.S. Attorney's Office. "As we have 
said since the initiative was announced last October, the marijuana 
industry is illegal and subject to federal enforcement wherever it is 
found. However, given our limited resources and the large number of 
marijuana stores in our seven-county district, we have in some cases 
given extra consideration to enforcement in those communities that 
have made it clear that commercial marijuana operations are unwanted 
and have taken efforts to remove them. But this does not mean that we 
will ignore enforcement in communities that have tried to establish 
regulatory schemes."

McDonnell's inaccurate claim came one month after City Manager Pat 
West's own inaccurate claim made as part of the push for a complete 
ban on medpot collectives. In a May 18 memorandum to Mayor Foster and 
the city council, West claimed "the District Attorney has indicated 
that they will not file felony drug charges against any dispensary 
operator in the City as long as the partial exemption from the ban 
exists." But that claim was characterized as "not true" by a DA 
spokesperson; and at the June 19 council meeting Richard Doyle, head 
deputy of the Long Beach branch of the L.A. County District Attorney 
- - who went out of the way to point out that he speaks for Steve 
Cooley himself - told the council, "We will still files cases whether 
you have an ordinance or not, whether you have a ban or not."

Neither McDonnell nor West replied to the Long Beach Post's requests 
for comment.

These are not the first instances of inaccurate representations made 
to Foster and council by city officials. For example, in May 2010, 
when asked by Councilmember Rae Gabelich how the City Attorney's 
Office had come to define collectives as "four (4) or more Qualified 
Patients and their designated Primary Caregivers" in the crafting of 
the original medpot ordinance, Assistant City Attorney Mike Mais 
said, "We came to that number because that's what the state, the 
Compassionate Use Act, defines a collective as: four or more. [...] 
Since we did follow the state law, which defines a collective as four 
or [more], I would suggest that we stay with that for the purposes of 
regulation."

But as the City Attorney's Office later admitted, that claim was 
inaccurate, as state law does not define medpot collectives, but 
simply allows patients and caregivers of qualified patients and 
persons with identification cards, who associate within the State of 
California in order "collectively or cooperatively to cultivate 
marijuana for medical purposes." Nonetheless, to this day city 
ordinance defines medpot collectives as "four or more."

If the City's decision-makers are troubled by receiving inaccurate 
information as they shape medpot policy, they are not saying so. 
Mayor Foster, who at this point openly favors a complete ban on 
collectives, declined to comment, as did Councilmember Robert Garcia, 
whose motion was the basis for the ban.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom