Legal User Rents Space for Cannabis Buyers' Club

Health: Woman's intention to sell pot to people who have a doctor's OK to
use it as medicine has alarmed Thousand Oaks officials.

THOUSAND OAKSA 27yearold woman legally permitted to smoke marijuana to
ease the pain of her chronic migraine headaches has rented space in a local
business center in hopes of opening Ventura County's first cannabis buyers'
club.

Andrea Nagy, who works as a legal secretary, has purchased a city business
license for a "pharmaceuticalrelated" operation and has rented a
360squarefoot storefront in the Village Oaks office complex on Thousand
Oaks Boulevard.

There, she hopes to grow 180 plants at a time in various stages of maturity
and sell the marijuana to people who have a doctor's permission to use the
illicit weed as medicine.

"I look at this as a rational and reasonable way of moving forward the
acceptance of what the general public wants," said Nagy, who obtained her
doctor's permission to smoke pot the day after California voters approved
Proposition 215 allowing for the medicinal use of marijuana.

Not so fast, city officials say. To be sure, a store that sells pot is not
something covered by city zoning law. And the district attorney has vowed
to prosecute anyone who attempts to operate a marijuana buyers' club in
Ventura County.

Still, Nagy insists that under Proposition 215, the socalled Compassionate
Use Act of 1996, she can legally dispense marijuana to "seriously ill"
people to treat their medical conditions. But her intentions to operate out
of a Thousand Oaks business center have alarmed and caught officials off
guard in this conservative, family oriented community.

"I'm not one that likes narcotics sold out of homes and stores," said Mayor
ProTem Michael Markey, a Compton police detective.

"We haven't ever looked at something like this before," Deputy City Atty.
Jim Friedl said.

Proposition 215 does not define a serious illness and conflicts with
federal drug laws that still outlaw the cultivation, use and sale of
marijuana, city officials say.

More troubling in this case, they say, the law holds that the sick can
smoke marijuana, but is silent on how sick people are supposed to obtain it.

Doctors cannot prescribe marijuana without risking their licenses to
prescribe medicine.

Nagy, an advocate for the outright legalization of marijuana, argues that
with the passage of Proposition 215, the sick have the right to obtain a
safe alternative to buying marijuana on the black market. That is why she
plans to grow highgrade marijuana in the back room of her storefront and
sell it on a nonprofit basis.

Nagy met with Friedl and Thousand Oaks Sheriff's Capt. Christopher Godfrey
last week to talk about her intentions.

With or without the city and law enforcement's blessing, she plans to open
the Rainbow Country marijuana buyers' club "within a couple of weeks" if
she hears nothing back from city officials, who are seeking the advice of
the district attorney.

"I'm basically taking it upon myself," Nagy said. "I'm willing to move on
it so something is done in this regard."

Although some California cities have looked the other way as buyers' clubs
quietly opened their doors after the passage of Proposition 215, Ventura
County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury has said he has no intention of
letting such centers operate here.

Proposition 215 did nothing to change federal laws banning the cultivation
and sale of marijuana, even if it is for medical purposes, Bradbury has said.

"The law currently prohibits cannabis buyers' clubs," Bradbury said
recently. "I will enforce the law."

Although he refused comment Tuesday on Nagy's intentions, Bradbury has been
anything but silent on his opposition to the medicinal use of marijuana.

He has called Proposition 215 a smoke screen for the legalization of
marijuana and a measure that represents a setback to the nation's war on
drugs.

Although Bradbury's position seems clear, Friedl said he mailed a letter to
the district attorney's office on Tuesday seeking advice on how to handle
Nagy's request for a city ordinance governing buyers' clubs in Thousand Oaks.

Even if the district attorney backed a cannabis club, Friedl said, drafting
an ordinance that spells out the conditions under which the city would
issue permits for such a business to operate would likely take a year or
more.

Godfrey said the measure "has enough loopholes to drive a truck through."

"It puts us in a precarious situation as a municipality about how to
approach this," said Godfrey, who is the city's assistant chief of police.
"We're going to take it one step at a time. I am sure, without question,
that it will be a topic of discussion when and if it [comes] before the
City Council."

Thousand Oaks Mayor ProTem Markey said a cannabis buyers' club "is
something that is not appropriate for Thousand Oaks."

"What the legal requirements arewhat she [Nagy] can and cannot dois
going to be determined by the police chief and the city attorney," he said.

Yet Nagy remains undeterred. She said she is trying to take the legally
required route to getting her business approved, and promises a rigorous
screening process for clients.

Godfrey said he expects the Sheriff's Department to "step very lightly on
this" if Nagy indeed does decide to open her doors without the proper
permits.

"I don't think we're going to break down the doors and arrest her, but it's
difficult for me to say," Godfrey said. "It depends on what kind of
statement comes from the district attorney and the kind of position our
city is going to take."

Scott Inmer, director of the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers Club in West
Hollywood, said buyers' clubs that have been successful are the ones
established by the sick or their family members who are able to persuade
law enforcement officials that their efforts were legitimate acts of
necessity.

But in the wake of Proposition 215, Inmer said, more and more entrepreneurs
and legalization advocates are attempting to open such clubs under the
guise of medicine.

Backers of the measure promised voters they would be rational and
responsible with the new law, Inmer said, and anyone running a buyers' club
needs to honor that commitment.

"If people are truly concerned about only legitimate people getting the
marijuana, and if people are truly concerned about keeping it out of the
hands of young people, then we all need to come together," he said. "This
is not brain surgery."

Copyright Los Angeles Times