PALM SPRINGS CITY COUNCIL APPROVES PAIR OF MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

The Palm Springs City Council gave final approval Wednesday night to
an ordinance allowing two medical marijuana dispensaries within
certain industrial zones in the city.

The measure will go into effect after 30 days, making Palm Springs
the first city in Riverside County officially to allow medical
marijuana dispensaries.

The dispensaries will be nonprofit collectives or cooperatives and
will only be allowed in the CM, M1 and M2 industrial zones.
Cooperatives and collectives will not be allowed within 1,000 feet of
each other or within 500 feet of schools, public parks, playgrounds,
churches, youth centers or residential areas.

The ordinance is in strict compliance with state guidelines put forth
by California Attorney General Jerry Brown, according to City
Attorney Douglas Holland.

Holland has said there are as many as seven illegal dispensaries
operating within the city. He said he is working to file civil
complaints against those dispensaries to shut them down until the new
regulations go into effect.

"They do not have any legal authority to operate in the city,"
Holland said.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that raids by
the Drug Enforcement Administration on marijuana dispensaries in
states where medical marijuana is legal will be stopped.

Proposition 215, approved by California voters in 1996, made it legal
to sell marijuana -- on a nonprofit basis -- to people who have a
doctor's prescription.

Since then hundreds of dispensaries have sprung up throughout the
state.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Before the attorney general's announcement, DEA agents raided many
dispensaries throughout Southern California.