IT'S HIGH NOON FOR POT CLINIC IN THOUSAND OAKS

Planning; City wants to impose a moratorium on medicinal marijuana business
while zoning is considered. Owner vows to fight.

THOUSAND OAKSMedicinal marijuana advocates in this affluent suburb may
soon find themselves temporarily zoned outand not because they
overindulged.

The City Council on Tuesday will consider adopting an "urgency ordinance"
barring "medical marijuana dispensaries" for 45 days so that city officials
can study and enact new zoning regulations governing such property use.

Deputy City Atty. Jim Friedl wrote in a report to the council that there
are countless issues to ponder and court cases to follow after passage of
California's 1996 medicinal marijuana initiativesuch as the impact of the
legal battle surrounding the Cannabis Buyers' Club in San Francisco. A
state appeals court ruled Friday that the clubwhich was shut down
following a 1996 raid by state agents but subsequently allowed to operate
by San Francisco authoritieshad to close again.

The decision, which affects medicinal marijuana centers statewide, would go
into effect next month, but it could be held up on appeal to the state
Supreme Court.

Thousand Oaks' ordinance, a rarely used tactic that requires a fourfifths
vote, comes in response to the actions of Andrea Nagy, a 27yearold legal
secretary who last month began dispensing marijuana out of a Thousand Oaks
strip mall to customers she said were ill and in need of special treatment.

Nagy said Friday she will not close down her pot prescription
storeregardless of what city leaders dobecause she has 28 patients who
need their medicine. She said she will seek a court injunction allowing her
to continue selling marijuana if city officials do not exempt her from the
ordinance.

Nagy said she and some of her patients, along with experts on marijuana's
medicinal attributes, will attend Tuesday's council meeting in an effort to
convince city leaders of their legitimacy.

I don't care," Nagy said of Thousand Oaks' expected action. "It [closing
down] is not an option for me, and I'm sure I'd be able to get an
injunction, operating on the issue of medical necessity."

On the grounds that she suffers chronic migraine headaches, Nagy obtained
permission to smoke pot the day after the passage of Proposition 215. In
September, she asked Thousand Oaks to amend its municipal code to allow
distribution of medical marijuana in the city.

She agrees that officials need time to study the zoning issues resulting
from Proposition 215something cities such as San Jose and Berkeley have
already done. But since she requested that Thousand Oaks do so months ago,
and her pleas were unheeded until recently, she believes an exemption for
her establishment is fair.

"I don't feel it will affect me," Nagy said. "The city attorney knows
already that the county is not coming down on me. I asked them to look into
this during the summer. I think this is a reasonable consideration
considering the limited knowledge they have on this issue.

"But if they try to shut me down, they're going to lose in court."

Thousand Oaks council members have denounced the sale of marijuana in their
city for any purposes. They say that's what their constituents would want
from them.