MODESTO MAY BE FIRST CITY TO ORDER A POT CLUB CLOSED

Like most Modesto businesses, California Healthcare Collective is licensed,
pays taxes on time, keeps a tidy storefront and avoids trouble.

But the product it distributes -- medical marijuana -- is illegal under
federal law. And in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision reaffirming
that fact, the city of Modesto, which licensed the business in October,
appears poised to shut it down.

"Do taxpayers really want to allow a business that is illegal under federal
law?" asked Councilman Will O'Bryant, a retired sheriff's detective and
chairman of the safety committee. "That just doesn't make sense."

Earlier this month, the three-member safety committee recommended
shuttering the dispensary through zoning laws. The committee also
recommended passing an ordinance that forbids marijuana dispensaries from
ever again opening in Modesto.

If the full council adopts those recommendations, scheduled for a vote
Sept. 6, Modesto likely would become the state's first city to close an
established dispensary, according to medical marijuana advocates. The
proposal would allow the dispensary to operate for a year before closure.

Owners of the California Healthcare Collective declined comment.

The proposal comes as cities and counties statewide are taking a tougher
line on medical marijuana in light of the Supreme Court ruling in June,
which upheld federal authorities' right to bust users and sellers of pot.

The case sought, in part, to re-concile disparities between California law,
which under Proposition 215 allows marijuana for medical purposes, and
federal law, which prohibits the drug's use for any purpose. Proponents of
medical marijuana contend that the drug helps soothe pain and ease nausea
without some of the side effects of more traditional drugs.

Other cities ban dispensaries

At least nine California cities have passed permanent bans on dispensaries,
but none of those had an existing store, said Kris Hermes, legal campaign
director for Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access. Cities such as
Turlock, Manteca, Merced and Livingston have enacted moratoriums to prevent
stores from opening.

In April, Americans for Safe Access filed a lawsuit challenging an outright
ban in Fresno on the grounds that it prevents patients' access to medicine.
Hermes said other lawsuits could follow.

"A majority of patients rely on dispensaries for their medicine," he said.
"To simply cut off the supply or access to that medicine is just not an
acceptable option."

In March, the Modesto City Council enacted an ordinance that prevents new
dispensaries from opening within city limits, which it later extended until
February.

That move came just weeks after the California Healthcare Collective moved
from its original location, 304 McHenry Ave., to a strip mall at 1009
McHenry Ave. The city's only other dispensary, Green Pole Alternative
Center, closed earlier this year. City officials said the shop closed
because the owners felt patients were taking advantage of the medical
cannabis. The store's former owner could not be reached for comment.

John Bain, a medical marijuana user and vice president of Merced Patients'
Group, said closing Modesto's only remaining shop would mean many patients
would have to drive to the Bay Area, home to some of the nearest dispensaries.

"Many of these folks are sick and it's hard for them to drive so far," said
Bain, who said he smokes an eighth of an ounce a day through a vaporizer to
treat mood disorders. Bain said marijuana doesn't put him on edge like
Prozac and other medications.

Proposition 215 allows patients to grow their own pot or have a primary
caregiver grow it for them, but the closure of dispensaries would make pot
more difficult to find, Bain said.

"The tougher it is to get legally," he said, "the more likely people get it
on the streets."

O'Bryant said he empathizes with patients and they have a right to
treatment that works for them.

Still, he said, as long as medical marijuana is illegal under federal law,
dispensaries don't belong in Modesto.

"The law is the law," he said.