Local officials claim success in shutting down illegal medical marijuana dispensaries but admit tracking them down in the first place is the most difficult task. Most city and county officials praise their own efforts to close down dispensaries they can locate, but sometimes it takes a little luck to find them. "We don't think any jurisdiction knows to the fullest extent how many there are," said Paul Chabot, the founder of Rancho Cucamonga-based Inland Valley Drug Free Community. "The reason is that these dispensaries can't apply for business licenses. There is no record keeping on how many exist or where they are. Law enforcement can only become aware by a cop seeing or it's self-reported or a citizen is calling up. They're literally pot stores popping up like weeds. I don't think anybody has 100 percent accuracy on physical locations in their city." [continues 508 words]
Some local medical marijuana advocates see good things coming from President Barack Obama's comments that prosecuting recreational marijuana users in Colorado and Washington state should not be a "top priority" of federal law enforcement. Obama told ABC News' Barbara Walters last week that law enforcement has "bigger fish to fry" than the recreational users in the two states, which legalized marijuana on Election Day. The attorney for Aaron Sandusky, who was convicted in October of operating medical marijuana dispensaries in the Inland Empire, said he will use the president's words at his client's sentencing on Jan. 7 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. [continues 676 words]
