MEDICAL POT SELLERS DIFFER ON COURT RULING

Steve Verbanac isn't taking any chances. He stopped selling pot at
his North Park dispensary within hours of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling
last week that upheld the federal government's right to prosecute
medical marijuana patients.

Jon Sullivan took a different approach. Not only did he keep his El
Cajon Boulevard storefront in San Diego up and running, he vowed to
open another shop in Pacific Beach as soon as this week.

Both men said the historic court decision Monday would have no real
effect on California's medical marijuana laws. They run legitimate
businesses and adhere strictly to state guidelines.

But one is willing to test the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration and the other is not.

"Our agenda is to help the communities where the stores are based,"
said Sullivan, who runs the Tripple Holistic Chronic medical
marijuana dispensary. "We are trying to do every single thing we can
do to operate in accordance with the state laws that have been set forth."

No fewer than eight marijuana dispensaries quietly cropped up around
San Diego over the past several months. They charge up to $80 for an
eighth of an ounce of high-grade pot.

Only recently, however, when Sullivan and others began advertising in
weekly newspapers distributed free around the county, have local and
federal law enforcement officials begun to take notice.

By late last week, with federal agents warning they may crack down on
the dispensaries in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, most
operators had stopped answering the telephone. Three closed their doors.

"You should have seen the patients," said one dispensary owner. "Some
of them were in tears."

Verbanac, a disabled veteran who said he smokes marijuana to relieve
a series of ailments, said in an interview prior to the court ruling
that he was confident he was breaking no laws.

He took out a city business license and pays the Social Security and
other taxes required of any company. He said he steers all of the
extra income from sales back into the dispensary. "There's not one
other issue in America that's more popular."

Jack Hook, acting special agent in charge of the San Diego DEA
office, disagreed. Several times last week, Hook warned that the
federal government will not tolerate the illegal distribution of
controlled substances.

"People operating dispensaries are not in the same categories as
patients using marijuana for medicinal purposes," Hook said. "Giving
it away or selling, it makes no difference. They are distributing
marijuana and subject to investigation."

Hook said federal agents will not target patients who grow a small
number of plants in their home or back yard, but they may investigate
reports or complaints of illegal activity.

"If we are at a house for a lawful reason and we see marijuana, we
are required to seize that because it is contraband," he said. "But
it doesn't necessarily mean that a person is going to be arrested or
charged with a federal violation."

Charles Howe is the president of a Coronado group that works to steer
young people away from drugs. He said state medical marijuana laws
make his job more difficult.

"Too many of our kids smoke marijuana," he said. "When questioned
about it, they say that it is medicine and therefore can't be bad for
them. Marijuana is bad for them, especially the younger teenagers."

Outside the Compassionate Caregivers dispensary in City Heights one
day last week, a handful of patients waited. A light was on and a
sign taped to the door said "open," but no one answered the door or telephone.

In one 10-minute stretch, four people jerked at the door handle to
find it locked. "Where do I go now?" wondered one customer, a bearded
man in his 50s leaning heavily on a cane.