COUNCILMEN PRESS U.S. ATTORNEY TO PROBE CANNABIS CLUB

THOUSAND OAKS--Hoping to smoke a medical-marijuana outlet out of their
suburb, two City Council members wrote a letter late Thursday asking
federal prosecutors to investigate the dispensary.

City Councilman Andy Fox and Mayor Mike Markey addressed the letter to Nora
Manella, the U.S. attorney for Southern California. The pair--a firefighter
and retired police officer, respectively--implored Manella "to look into
the Ventura County Medical Cannabis Center as to whether or not this
operation is violating federal laws."

"Since our society has spent considerable time and effort to teach our
children to 'Just Say No' to these drugs, we fear the impact these
unregulated facilities will have on our local children," the letter reads
in part.

Fox said the idea of contacting the U.S. attorney's office came last week,
when the federal government sought to shut down six cannabis clubs in
Northern California.

The operator of the local facility, 28-year-old legal secretary Andrea
Nagy, said she welcomes the federal government's involvement.

A chronic migraine sufferer with a doctor's prescription for marijuana,
Nagy said she hopes to be slapped with a civil lawsuit and barred from
operating the club.

That way, Nagy said, she can disobey the injunction, be arrested and have a
jury of her peers hear her case for treating 44 AIDS, cancer and glaucoma
sufferers with the illicit herb.

"I don't know why they only took action up north," Nagy said Thursday. "We
would like to be a party to the legal action. This is the first time in
history that the issues could be deliberated in front of a jury."

She added: "I think this issue needs to be debated so it can be resolved. I
think any 12 reasonable people would understand the facts instead of the
myths and fiction."

On Jan. 9, the U.S. attorney's office in Northern California filed civil
lawsuits against the six clubs and their operators, accusing them of
distributing prescription pot. The federal attorneys are seeking permanent
injunctions to shut medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco,
Oakland, Santa Cruz, Ukiah and Marin.

At that time, Michael Yamaguchi--Manella's Northern California
counterpart--said the government wants "to send a clear message regarding
the illegality of marijuana cultivation and distribution." The action
served to underscore the point that, while using medicinal pot is legal
under state law, the cultivation and distribution of marijuana are still
illegal under federal law, which takes precedence.

California voters approved the medical marijuana initiative--Proposition
215--in 1996. In September, Nagy opened up her cannabis club in a generic
Thousand Oaks office complex and began growing and selling marijuana for
people she says are sick and need the drug to ease their suffering. That
hasn't sat right with most Thousand Oaks officials--Markey and Fox among
them. The City Council attempted to pass a moratorium on such
establishments last month, but could not muster the necessary four-fifths
vote.

"While I sympathize with people who need marijuana to ease pain,
Proposition 215 doesn't authorize people to open these clubs," Fox said
Thursday. "We have the public safety of our whole city to consider."

Copyright Los Angeles Times