BUELLTON APPROVES BAN ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

Despite pleas from medical marijuana users and their supporters, the
Buellton City Council unanimously approved a ban on medical marijuana
dispensaries.

Buellton had a medical marijuana dispensary called Hezekiah Inc. on
Second Street, but it shut down after being raided by federal agents
who seized all the marijuana on the premises on July 26. Hezekiah had
been the only medical marijuana dispensary in northern Santa Barbara
County. Another clinic operates in Santa Barbara.

Unlike the first reading and introduction of the ordinance on Jan.
10, when no speakers testified, nine speakers asked the council
Thursday to reconsider the ban and table the action for more time to
develop regulations for dispensaries.

Most of the speakers gave Santa Maria or Orcutt addresses. None
identified themselves as being Buellton or Santa Ynez Valley residents.

Thomas J. Gray, a Los Angeles attorney representing Hezekiah Inc.
founder and director Steve Allbritton, said that "inaccuracies" in
Planning Director Marc P. Bierdzinski's staff report regarding crime
associated with Hezekiah and other medical marijuana dispensaries in
Santa Barbara and Morro Bay had been used to draw conclusions that
were "unwarranted."

In his report to the council, Bierdzinski cited crime related to
Hezekiah that included burglaries at the facility in November 2006
and May 2007, the bust of an illegal medical marijuana cultivation
operation in the city in February 2007, and what was reported as "a
felony conviction for selling marijuana to a person without a valid
medical marijuana ID card."

The report said "the operators were convicted of a felony in this
instance but were not required to shut down the operation."

Gray said it is better to develop regulations and guidelines than
impose a complete ban. He said a ban will "accomplish an underground
economy situation" for people who are just trying to get what a
doctor prescribed for them. He suggested sending the ordinance back
to staff to work with someone knowledgeable like Allbritton and
regulate the business like a liquor store or drug store.

"It's in your town," Gray said. "It's going to be in your town, like
it or not. The community will feel safer and better about this."

In his comments, Allbritton accused the city of culpability in the
raids on Hezekiah by county sheriff's deputies in February 2007 and
the federal raid in July 2007.

Deals were made "behind closed doors" with law enforcement in an
effort to close the dispensary, he said.

No council members responded to that allegation.

Allbritton took exception to the report of a felony conviction for an
operator selling marijuana to a person without a valid medical
marijuana ID card, saying he has never been convicted of a federal
offense and the city had slandered his "good name."

Bierdzinski clarified the report, stating that the name of the person
had not used to identify who was charged with the felony, so the
generic term "operator" had been used.

Reached after the meeting, Bierdzinski said "the sources for the
various crime information were cited and can be back-checked," and
the city staff "stands by the information in the staff report as
correct with the clarification" made at the meeting.

It is a crime under federal and state law to manufacture, distribute,
dispense or possess marijuana, but the state makes an exception for
the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

In 1996, 56 percent of California voters approved Proposition 215,
called the Compassionate Use Initiative, which allows marijuana to be
used legally by qualified patients who receive a prescription from a doctor.

It was the first statewide medical marijuana voter initiative adopted
in the nation. However, federal law enforcement agents do not
recognize the state law, instead enforcing the federal prohibition on
even medical marijuana use.