CVAG COMMITTEE HEARS MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE

Riverside County District Attorney Grover Trask may oppose medical
marijuana dispensaries, but Palm Desert has renewed the business
license for CannaHelp, the dispensary that has been on El Paseo for one year.

The ongoing dispensary debate rolled into the Public Safety
Committee of the Coachella Valley Association of Governments today
as Kevin Ruddy, the county's chief deputy district attorney,
answered questions about the white paper Trask released last month.

While state law allows qualified patients to possess and grow
marijuana for medical use, Ruddy said, "nowhere in the law does code
allow for what is called a dispensary. That's the bottom line."

Ruddy said he could not comment on whether CannaHelp, which is run
as a patient collective, would be considered legal under the white
paper. State law, passed 10 years ago, does allow for collectives
and cooperatives to grow medical marijuana.

Any possession, cultivation or sale of marijuana is illegal under
federal law. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted earlier
this month to ban dispensaries in unincorporated areas like Bermuda
Dunes and Sky Valley.

Capt. Steve Thetford, chief of the Palm Desert Police Department,
said that CannaHelp has not been "a significant threat to public safety."

But, he said, the dispensary does have an indirect impact, since
officers must occasionally spend time verifying that customers have
valid letters of recommendation.

Palm Desert Councilman Robert A. Spiegel, who is also chair of the
Public Safety Committee, did not foresee any action by the committee
or CVAG either supporting or opposing dispensaries. Ruddy's
presentation was intended as informational only, he said.