L.A.'S MARIJUANA STORES TAKE ROOT

A decade ago, the Rev. Scott Imler co-wrote and organized the ballot
initiative that made California the first state to legalize marijuana
for medical use. Now Imler shakes his head with dismay over what his
law has wrought: scores of storefront marijuana shops across Southern
California with menus of pot varieties for sale to anyone with a doctor's note.

"What we set out to do was put something in the statutes that said
medicine was a defense in case they got arrested using marijuana for
medical reasons," Imler says. "What we got was a whole different
thing, a big new industry."

'Dispensaries' Boom

Los Angeles has become a boomtown for pot stores. The number of
"dispensaries" as they are known has gone from four in late 2005 to
98 one year later, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

It all started in 1996 when California voters passed Proposition 215,
which legalized the growing and possession of marijuana for medical
use. Supporters such as the marijuana-legalization group NORML pushed
for the law, saying smoking pot lessens pain and alleviates nausea of
serious illnesses.

Cooperatives sprung up, permitted under the law to receive
"reasonable compensation" for the distribution of their product. Then
stores opened, which in Los Angeles can sell up to a half-pound of
pot to an individual.

None of this is legal under federal law, and the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) recently raided several stores in January in
West Hollywood, hauling away thousands of pounds of pot and hundreds of plants.

"It's really become a way of skirting the law for the recreational
use of marijuana," Los Angeles police Lt. Paul Vernon says.

Stores that sell marijuana are touted in Los Angeles' alternative
newspapers and on the Internet. Ads also offer doctors who will write
a legal "recommendation" that a patient needs pot for ailments as
common as headaches and depression. In online reviews, users discuss
the merits of varieties with names such as "Mountain High," "Purple
Haze," and "Gold Kush," at prices of up to $80 for one-eighth ounce.

The stores are accused of selling to people who don't have health
issues or doctors' notes and of raking in huge profits. In essence,
some drug dealers may have gone legit, police say.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton says it's time to crack
down. He has asked the City Council to impose a moratorium on new pot
stores and to impose restrictions on hours, location and how they operate.

In a report to the Board of Police Commissioners late last year,
Bratton said "the spirit and intent of this act has been exploited
and abused for both profit and recreational drug abuse by many of the
medical marijuana dispensaries." He said crime and complaints have
surrounded some of the stores, including open smoking of marijuana on
nearby streets and targeting school students with store advertising fliers.

In an effort to beat an anticipated crackdown, more stores have
sprung up. Four dozen opened in the past few months, Vernon
estimates. He says L.A. now has 140 pot stores, some close to schools.

'More About Intimidation'

In Los Angeles County there are around 200 stores, DEA special agent
Sarah Pullen estimates, far more than in the San Francisco area to
the north. She says all of them are breaking federal law.

After the DEA raid in January, some of the targeted stores have
reopened. The raids have prompted protests.

"This is more about intimidation on the part of DEA than actually
enforcing laws," says Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans
for Safe Access.

"Even if there are abuses, what happens if you are told you have
cancer and have to start chemotherapy next week? Do you know where to
find marijuana?" she says.

Ten other states allow medical marijuana, but none is as permissive
as California's law, Sherer says. The intent, Imler says, was to
provide a risk-free, no-hassle way for people with real medical needs
for marijuana to grow or obtain it without fear of arrest.

In West Hollywood, one of the most liberal communities in the state,
cops take a hands-off policy "unless there are people around there
complaining," says Deputy John Klaus of the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department's West Hollywood division.

Now pastor at Crescent Heights United Methodist Church in West
Hollywood, Imler, 49, moved here from Northern California in 1995 to
help organize the medical-marijuana-ballot movement. He says he used
marijuana first to counter severe seizures from a head injury, and
later when he developed cancer.

He organized a marijuana collective that was shut down by federal
agents in 2001. He was arrested and received one year probation.
Cancer-free, he says he stopped using marijuana. But he worries that
the state will pull back from its commitment to medical marijuana if
people abuse the law.

"I was pretty naive," he says. "I thought people would act in good faith."