POT-DISPENSARY CRACKDOWN ACTIVATES SEARCH FOR OPTIONS

As the number of medical-marijuana dispensaries in the Inland area
dwindles, patients are looking for other options while their
advocates try to shield them from arrest.

More than 160 members of the U.S. House of Representatives on
Wednesday supported a proposal to end federal funding of Drug
Enforcement Administration raids and other actions against
medical-pot outlets. The measure was defeated.

Palm Springs officials are drafting an ordinance to allow
medical-marijuana patients to grow pot at city-authorized collectives
- -- despite a top federal prosecutor's warning that City Council
members who approve such measures could be subject to federal prosecution.

As storefront outlets close, groups that offer home deliveries of
medical pot are receiving a surge of calls from former dispensary
patients. One Corona-based service has doubled its patient load in
the past week.

Only two or three of the seven medical-pot outlets in Riverside and
San Bernardino counties that were open at the beginning of the year
are still operating, patient advocates said. One, in Palm Desert,
will close in September under pressure from the city and another, in
Palm Springs, is being threatened with eviction. It is unclear
whether a third dispensary, in Palm Springs, remains open, city officials said.

California voters approved the medicinal use of marijuana in 1996.
Under state law, people suffering from AIDS-related complications,
cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and other diseases can use
marijuana to relieve pain. A doctor's recommendation is required.

But marijuana use remains a federal crime. The U.S. Supreme Court
ruled in 2005 that medical-marijuana outlets and patients can be
prosecuted under federal law. Federal officials view state and local
laws as inapplicable.

Last week, the DEA raided medical-marijuana outlets in Corona and
Perris and arrested their owner. Those were two of a series of raids
the agency has conducted at medical-pot outlets throughout the state
since the voter initiative passed.

Landlords at Risk

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, a co-sponsor of the
measure that would have cut off funding for the DEA raids, said
Congress should stop the DEA from using taxpayer money to thwart the
will of California voters and to take doctor-approved drugs away from
sick people.

"This is the most outrageous misuse of limited funds," Rohrabacher
said by telephone. "They should use that money in a way that will
help us keep young people from getting involved in drugs and have a
better understanding of the threat that drugs pose to them rather
than basically thumbing their nose at the local electorate and
causing great hardship for people who are physically ill."

Rohrabacher also blasted a recent DEA threat to seize the property of
building owners who rent to marijuana dispensaries, calling it
"abusive and arrogant."

The letter was sent to about 150 property owners in Los Angeles
County. But a DEA spokeswoman said owners in other counties might be
targeted next.

Shaoul Levy said he is so worried about the seizure of the Palm
Springs building that he and four partners own that he plans to ask
the Desert Valley Patients Association dispensary to move out. The
medical-marijuana association signed a one-year lease for Levy's
building in downtown Palm Springs about four months ago, the group's
attorney said.

Levy, of Santa Monica, said that he owns a Los Angeles building that
contains a dispensary and received one of the DEA letters. He does
not believe he and other landlords should be dragged into disputes
among federal, state and local officials over medical marijuana.

"They should keep the building owners out of it," he said. "They are
holding us hostage."

Levy said he expects the patients association to fight the eviction
notice by arguing that he is illegally breaking the lease.

Anthony Curiale, the Brea attorney for the association, said he hopes
to work with the building's owners to resolve the problem, but added
that a lawsuit against the owners is an option. The DEA, he said, is
using "terror and fear tactics" to intimidate property owners.

Cities in the Fray

The patients association has problems with the city of Palm Springs
as well. The city last year barred new dispensaries until it could
establish medical-marijuana regulations. The two dispensaries
existing at the time later closed.

Desert Valley violates that law, City Attorney Douglas Holland said.
City officials are seeking to close the outlet through civil
code-enforcement actions, he said. Curiale said the association will
fight the city.

The draft ordinance that Palm Springs' medical-marijuana task force
drew up last week would allow marijuana patients and their caregivers
to form collectives that would be closed to outsiders. Only marijuana
grown on the premises could be provided to patients. City officials
could inspect records at any time. Other restrictions, including a
limit on the number of members, will likely be added before the
proposal is finalized, Holland said.

The city had not previously regulated medical-marijuana outlets.

The rules prevent abuse, including sales to non-patients, and conform
to state law, Holland said.

Yet the proposal faces legal threats on both sides of the
medical-marijuana issue.

The Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access, a patient-advocacy
group, believes Palm Springs does not have the right under state law
to establish certain restrictions, such as a limit on the number of
members, spokesman Kris Hermes said.

The DEA, though, views all medical-marijuana dispensaries or
collectives as illegal. Special Agent Sarah Pullen said the DEA does
not take a city's support for medical marijuana into account when
deciding which outlets to raid.

The chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney's Office in
Los Angeles says city officials who allow medical-marijuana outlets
are subject to prosecution for violating federal marijuana laws. At a
Coachella Valley Association of Governments meeting in January,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom O'Brien said such officials could be
prosecuted for aiding and abetting a federal crime.

President Bush nominated O'Brien on July 12 to become U.S. attorney
for the Los Angeles office, which covers Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Palm Springs City Councilwoman Ginny Foat, who sits on the marijuana
task force, said O'Brien's comment makes her less likely to vote for
a marijuana-collective ordinance, even though she strongly believes
the city should allow people suffering from debilitating diseases to
obtain medical marijuana.

"It has a real chilling effect," Foat said. "That was very disturbing
to us -- that our vote would be threatened by a law-enforcement
officer. We are trying to do what is legally right according to
California law."

Foat asked state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a Santa Monica Democrat who
chairs the Senate health committee, to request a legal opinion from
Attorney General Jerry Brown's office on what sort of legal liability
- -- if any -- public officials have.

State Senior Assistant Attorney General Rodney Lilyquist responded in
a May 29 letter that he could not answer because medical-marijuana
dispensaries are the subject of litigation.

Kuehl said she is unaware of any litigation involving the narrow
question of whether public officials can be arrested for approving
medical-marijuana ordinances. She said she would write another letter
to Brown's office asking for a legal opinion on the matter.

"At the very least, it's lazy research," Kuehl said of the May 29
letter. Holland called the response a "cop-out."

Deliveries Increase

As federal officials close in on remaining medical-marijuana
dispensaries and try to prevent cities from allowing the
establishment of new ones, some patients are turning to
medical-marijuana delivery services.

Medical-marijuana Web sites list more than a dozen delivery services
that serve the Inland area.

The Corona operator of one service, Holistic Alternative Inc., said
her patient list has doubled since last week's raids in Corona and
Perris. She declined to give her full name for fear of arrest by
federal officials.

The woman, who said she uses marijuana to relieve pain from severe
arthritis, said she had about 20 patients until the July 17 Corona
raid. She said that since then she has been receiving three to five
patient inquiries a day and has had to turn away patients because she
does not have enough marijuana.

"The people we serve are very ill," said the woman, who said she
established the service about six months ago. "We have
multiple-sclerosis patients who can barely leave their homes."

She said Holistic Alternative is a nonprofit collective of patients
that obtains marijuana from members who grow it. She said she has
delivered to patients as far away as Blythe.

The group contacts doctors to verify patients' eligibility for
medical marijuana before delivery, and checks identification cards
and original copies of doctors' letters at patients' doors, she said.

The woman said she is willing to take legal risks because she wants
to help other patients. But, she said, she does not believe the
relatively small amount of marijuana she stores will make her a DEA target.

"If the federal government has the time to waste getting the four
ounces I may keep at my house, let them waste it," she said.

Even though patients have turned to delivery services for help, some
are wary of them, said Ryan Michaels, a Riverside member of the
Patient Advocacy Network, which assists medical-marijuana patients.

Many patients feel more comfortable going to dispensaries because
they have a professional medical atmosphere, and the patients can
scrutinize the operations more closely to ensure they comply with
state law, he said.

Some patients fear that undercover police may be behind some delivery
services, said Summer Glenney, of San Jacinto, Inland Empire field
coordinator for the advocacy network.

Pullen, the DEA agent, said the agency is aware of the delivery
services. Pullen said she knows of no past federal action against
them but said that they are illegal and could be subject to
prosecution at any time.