MEDICINAL POT DISPENSARIES UNDER SCRUTINY

WHITTIER - Some arrived wearing hippie clothes and facial piercings;
some wore suits; others were dressed in jeans and sweat shirts.

The diverse group of people filled out paperwork as they sat silently
inside a waiting room at the Holistic Clinic on Whittier Boulevard.

All of them had come for one reason - to receive a physician's
recommendation for medical marijuana.

For just two hours every Thursday evening, a doctor opens shop at the
clinic, evaluating people seeking marijuana. They come with $150 for
the doctor's fee and an assortment of ailments - from cancer to AIDS
to migraines, menstrual cramps and even sore muscles.

Armando, a 27-year-old medical marijuana user from the Whittier area,
who would not reveal his last name for fear of federal prosecution,
said he suffered from migraines for years and had bad side effects
from prescription medications.

"I was unable to function," before using marijuana, said Armando. "I
couldn't do normal, everyday things."

It's been more than a decade since voters allowed people to use
marijuana for medical reasons by approving Proposition 215 in 1996. A
2004 law, SB420, expanded 215 by making it legal for groups of
patients to grow and use marijuana collectively.

But marijuana - medicinal or not - is still illegal under federal law.

The ambiguity has spawned a booming cottage industry of medical
marijuana providers. Medical marijuana dispensaries, fed by a steady
stream of patients from evaluation clinics like the Holistic Clinic
in Whittier, have sprung up by the dozens in suburban strip malls
across Los Angeles County.

Some police officials say abuse of medical marijuana is widespread
and growing, and includes recreational users easily getting marijuana
recommendations from profit-motivated physicians; dispensaries
turning to illegal growers for supplies; and people selling their
medical pot on the streets.

Surveying this new landscape, Proposition 215 co-author the Rev.
Scott Imler laments this is not what he envisioned when he helped
write the measure on behalf of severely ill patients, he said.

"When we wrote 215, we were selling it to the public as something for
seriously ill people," said Imler, who opened the state's first
marijuana dispensary, in West Hollywood. "It's turned into a joke. I
think a lot of people have medicalized their recreational use."

The Whittier Collective dispensary opened in the city last year, and
other dispensaries have opened in Covina, Hacienda Heights, Pasadena
and Highland Park.

Whittier Mayor Cathy Warner strongly opposes marijuana dispensaries.

"For me, personally, federal law supersedes state law," said Warner,
who last summer voted against the city's marijuana dispensaries
ordinance. "I base my decision on that, and don't believe there
should be any dispensaries in the city."

Warner believes people who are not seriously ill are regularly
getting marijuana from the dispensary in Whittier.

At the Holistic Clinic, a young woman who would not give her name,
said she was given a marijuana recommendation to treat painful
menstrual cramps.

"Birth control made me really nauseated," said the Whittier resident,
a student at East Los Angeles College. "I tried anxiety pills but
became dependent on them. I treat like any other medicine. It
shouldn't be any different."

But Anthony Alvarez, 55, of Whittier said he gets marijuana from the
Whittier Collective for his terminal liver cancer. He said marijuana
has helped him more than any prescription drugs.

"It helps me to eat and maintain my weight," said Alvarez. "I have
two types of pain in my abdomen - a stabbing, shooting pain and a
pressure pain. When I smoke, I relax."

Richard Brizendine, attorney for the Whittier Collective, said the
group plans to stay in Whittier as long as possible, but collective
officials also are looking for possible places to move within the
proper zone. For now, the Whittier Collective has through Oct. 31,
2008, to remain at its current location.

He said the collective follows the spirit of Proposition 215 in that
it is a not-for-profit organization of concerned individuals.

"Their motivation is exactly the same as any person who volunteers to
deliver Christmas gifts to a church, or to be on the board of
directors of the Red Cross," said Brizendine. "The collective does it
to provide a service to the patients who require medical marijuana."

The collective is among about 200 that have opened in Los Angeles
County, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, which
recently raided 11 medical marijuana clinics in Hollywood, Venice and
the San Fernando Valley.

"Marijuana dispensaries are treated like any other illegal activity,"
said Sarah Pullen, spokeswoman for the DEA's Los Angeles office.

Although some local police officials report seeing the state's
marijuana laws being abused, they complain they are powerless to stop it.

"What's happening is that every pothead out there is pulling the wool
over the public's eyes, paying a doctor for a recommendation," said
Lt. Jim Bitetto of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "The
majority of people who go into those places are younger and don't
appear to be ill at all. It's making a joke of the whole system."

Imler, too, believes that many dispensaries now buy marijuana
illegally from drug dealers. While medical marijuana patients are
allowed to grow up to 12 plants each under Proposition 215, most
dispensaries have found it is cheaper and less labor-intensive to buy
it, Imler said.

As a result, patients who could truly benefit from marijuana are
paying high prices for the drug, he said.

"The sad thing is that, 10 years later, you still have to have $80 to
get marijuana if you have cancer or AIDS. Our program was a
charitable program ... We were based on being off the black market."

At the Holistic Clinic, Armando said many medical marijuana users get
negative reactions from their families and friends, Armando said.

"People come in here afraid of being put into a database, afraid of
their mothers, fathers knowing," he said. "I had to break down a lot
of walls for my family to understand. Now that I've explained it,
they're more understanding."