MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY TO CLOSE DOWN

HACIENDA HEIGHTS - It's 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, and in 15 minutes the
lone medical marijuana dispensary in the area will open for the day.

The dispensary, at 15838 Halliburton Road, is next to a string of
Chinese bakeries, restaurants and cafes. It would go unnoticed except
for a California Medical Caregivers Association sign hanging from the
iron door.

As one patient waits for the facility to open, he sits in his car and
flips through High Times, a magazine that caters to the cannabis
culture. Another patient steps into the bakery next door and buys
several pastries before he shows an armed guard his prescription and
license and enters the dispensary.

As of April 30, the facility will close its doors permanently, county
officials announced Tuesday, leaving these patients to search for
another dispensary to get their prescriptions filled.

Just as some community members and county officials had hoped, the
owners of the facility agreed to shutter the dispensary, Supervisor
Don Knabe's office said Tuesday.

"As I have said before, this is not about whether medical marijuana is
right or wrong - the voters have already answered that question,"
Knabe said. "What is most critical is ensuring the Advertisement
safety of our children and our neighborhoods."

When the pot club opened in 2005, it sparked an immediate reaction
from the county Board of Supervisors, said Chris Fusco, field
coordinator for Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland-based medical
marijuana advocacy group. At the time, the county did not have an
ordinance for marijuana dispensaries.

A moratorium was passed just a few hours after the facility opened in
May 2005. A judge ultimately decided the facility would be exempt from
any regulation the county adopted, allowing it to continue operations,
Fusco said.

In March 2006, the county passed an ordinance that, among other
restrictions, prohibited marijuana dispensaries from operating within
1,000feet of schools, churches and libraries.

The California Medical Caregivers Association is within 1,000 feet of
Newton Middle School, said Knabe spokesman Aaron Nevarez.

Representatives at the dispensary declined to comment, but Fusco said
the owners took the advice of Americans for Safe Access.

"They shouldn't force their way into the community," Fusco said. "They
are being a model collective operation" by agreeing to close the facility.

According to police, the pot club has not attracted an unusual number
of calls. In the past year, police have responded to the location
twice - both times because of security alarms that were later canceled
by the alarm company, said Sheriff's Lt. Michael Claus.

Michael Williams, president of the Hacienda Heights Improvement
Association, said he and other residents were unhappy with the
location of the dispensary.

"They came under the radar and opened the facility," Williams said.
"It caught everyone by surprise."

While he sympathizes with some of the patients who use medical
marijuana, he said there are more appropriate locations for such a
facility.

"The fact that it opened in the middle of a commercial district kind
of doesn't make any sense," Williams said.

There are nearly 200 dispensaries in the greater Los Angeles area,
although Fusco said that the San Gabriel Valley is greatly
under-served.

"This is a loss to the patients in the area, and now they will have to
travel greater distances to get safe access," he said.