19/08/2007 00:00:00
US: Medical marijuana legal in California, but feds still raid dispensaries
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SACRAMENTO - More than a decade after California voters approved
legalized medical marijuana, an explosion of dispensaries and patients
has cities and counties scrambling to regulate the operations.
In Los Angeles - where the number of dispensaries soared from just a
handful to more than 200 in the past two years - stunned city officials
recently passed a moratorium on new clinics until they can develop
guidelines.
Hundreds of other cities up and down California have no regulations at
all on medical marijuana dispensaries, including at least 28 where
clinics or delivery services are operating, according to a Daily News
analysis.
Law enforcement officials say a lack of local oversight could allow
dispensaries to open near schools or parks, with no way for authorities
to remedy the situation.
"I think they could easily be surprised," said Modesto Police Chief Roy
Wasden, who chairs a statewide task force on medical marijuana. "They're
not prepared for the issues that will surround dispensaries opening up."
According to Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy
group, 26 cities and eight counties in California have ordinances
allowing and regulating dispensaries.
An additional 55 cities and two counties have enacted bans (which some
advocates maintain are illegal), and 75 cities and six counties have
imposed temporary moratoriums.
The remainder of the state's 478 incorporated cities and 58 counties
have yet to specifically address the issue.
Throughout California, there are at least 400 known medical marijuana
dispensaries - and likely hundreds more that are unpublicized.
About 15,000 Californians have registered for state medical-marijuana
identification cards. Because the cards are voluntary and not required
to obtain medical marijuana, officials cannot say with certainty how
many people actually are seeking the drug.
Pro-legalization groups estimate there are 150,000 to 200,000
medical-marijuana users in California - up from about 30,000 just five
years ago.
Law enforcement agencies remain concerned about the potential for
unregulated dispensaries, with their stashes of drugs and cash, to
attract crime to neighborhoods.
And some of the facilities, they say, are simply profit-making
enterprises that sell at stiff prices to healthy youths and the
seriously ill alike.
The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in crime near
some facilities and has received complaints about activities, including
one dispensary handing out fliers for free marijuana samples to students
at Grant High School in Valley Glen.
But medical-marijuana advocates and some academic experts say such
concerns are overblown.
"I think that's something that law enforcement is using as a tactic to
spread fear," said Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access.
"And to intimidate city and county officials from doing what's right and
what's just, which is to establish protections for these facilities and,
if necessary, regulate them in some sensible way."
The Reason Foundation issued a report earlier this year saying that
marijuana-related crimes have decreased since Proposition 215 - allowing
medical use of marijuana in California - was passed by voters in 1996.
"Common sense would say there's no reason why a well-regulated
dispensary would add to ambient crime in the neighborhood at all," said
report author Skaidra Smith-Heisters.
The only factor that might contribute to crime, she said, "would be the
fact that they're operating without any ground rules right now."
While the Bay Area was the first to embrace medical marijuana - and its
cities were the first to figure out how to handle dispensaries - more
recently the fastest growth has shifted to Los Angeles, and especially
the San Fernando Valley.
Only three years ago, the city had perhaps one or two known
dispensaries. Today, there are at least 150 listed in directories
maintained by advocacy groups. City and law enforcement officials
believe there are as many as 200 to 400.
About half of the city's known dispensaries are in the San Fernando
Valley, meaning a region that has roughly 5 percent of the state's
population has 19 percent of its medical marijuana facilities - more, in
fact, than the entire Bay Area from San Jose to Marin County.
"The center of gravity on this shifted in the last couple of years,"
said Dale Gieringer, director of the California chapter of the
pro-legalization group NORML.
"When it started out, everything was in Northern California."
The first clubs in Los Angeles County, he said, were established in West
Hollywood by operators from the Bay Area.
"After they got established down there, it took a year or two before
somebody was willing to put their toe in across the city line. Then they
did, and all of a sudden, it was `Katy, bar the door.' The great
cannabis rush was on," he said.
The Los Angeles City Council recently placed a moratorium on the opening
of new facilities while it figures out how to deal with the growth.
Council members are generally sympathetic to legitimate dispensaries
that are seen as helping the seriously ill, but they want to be able to
regulate them and weed out the bad actors.
Although California voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996, growth
has only occurred recently because there had been confusion about how
the law worked. In 2003, the state enacted legislation spelling out a
series of specific regulations.
But even as the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 essentially confirmed the
validity of Proposition 215, it also upheld the federal government's
right to prosecute marijuana patients under federal law.
And that has prompted growing tensions, including in Los Angeles, where
the federal Drug Enforcement Agency has launched raids against dispensaries.
"We're not going to stop enforcing the federal laws now," said Sarah
Pullen, spokeswoman for the DEA's Los Angeles region.
About nine states have laws permitting medical marijuana, according to
Rosalie Pacula, a drug policy analyst with the RAND Corp.
But California has attracted more attention from the feds, in part, she
said, because its laws are looser than other states', allowing patients
to possess larger quantities and allowing dispensaries to flourish.
"If you're really interested in protecting patients, keep the quantities
low," Pacula said.
Some in Congress are trying to get the DEA to back off, including Reps.
Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, and Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., who
are backing a bill that would block funding for prosecutions of
medical-marijuana patients.
Without such protections, businesses that believe they are operating
legitimately under California state law still keep a jittery eye out for
federal agents and often try to maintain a low profile.
Holistic Alternative Inc., a nonprofit dispensary in Canoga Park, opened
three months ago and finds it hard to attract new patients because it
can't advertise.
Instead, it and other facilities rely on Internet advertising - a more
discreet option than hanging a big sign out front.
David, a co-owner who asked that his last name be withheld, said he
founded the dispensary with a partner who takes marijuana for medicinal
purposes and wanted to help others.
"I would hope they would leave us alone because most of our patients are
actually really sick," he said. "Probably 90 (percent) to 95 percent of
my patients are really sick and do need the medicine.
"If they don't get it from us, I can't see these older ladies and
gentlemen in their 60s and 70s walking around getting drugs off the street."
harrison.sheppard@dailynews.com
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_6660639
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12800
Author:
Los Angeles Daily News via UKCIA
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