STIGMA DIFFICULT TO SHAKE, POT CLUB OPERATOR SAYS

ASHLAND - The nondescript white building in unincorporated Ashland
has iron bars on its windows and the look of a bunker. An American
flag hangs next to a blue awning above the glass front door that
faces out onto busy East Lewelling Boulevard.

No signs or markings indicate what type of establishment operates in
the building. Yet, on a typical weekday afternoon last week, a
steady stream of mainly young men moved in and out of the front door.

The establishment is called We Are Hemp, and it is the last medical
marijuana dispensary left standing in unincorporated Alameda County.

"There's a stigma about this," said Adele Morgan, 70, the
dispensary's owner. "But I think we're a very respected club, to
tell you the truth."

When entering the front door, a large man with .40-caliber pistol on
his hip greets you with a smile. In the waiting room, another armed
guard logs in customers on a form on a clipboard.

If you are a regular customer - or member - you are escorted to the
dispensary in the back, where, underneath a glass counter, pipes are
lined up next to jars filled with green marijuana buds. Two
"budtenders" - Jason, 23, who declined to give his last name, and
Scott Oh, 24 - will help you with your selection of premium,
high-grade or mid-grade marijuana.

If you're a new customer, you must provide a copy of
a recommendation from a doctor and fill out the proper forms. You
are photographed and given a membership card, and then you can make
your purchase.

The place is clean and has the vibe of a clinic, except in the
dispensary, where hip-hop art hangs from the purple walls.
Flat-screen televisions throughout the facility provide live feeds
from all the rooms and from the front entrance for security
purposes. A break room in the back serves the eight employees.

Morgan says her establishment serves about 1,000 members, who are
allowed to buy up to 3 ounces of pot every 30 days, at a cost of
$320 to $340 per ounce, depending on the variety.

Mom-and-pop operation

Morgan is a retired nurse who worked for 30 years at Kaiser
Permanente Medical Center in Hayward and worked for 12 years as a
probation officer for the Alameda County Probation Department. She
has a master's degree in educational psychology from Cal State East Bay.

In retirement, she opened We Are Hemp as a retail store selling hemp
products, converting it into a dispensary in 2005 after receiving
one of three medical marijuana permits issued in unincorporated
Alameda County.

She calls We Are Hemp a mom-and-pop operation, and says her
employees are like family. Her son, Mike Morgan, 31, is her business
partner who takes care of most of the day-to-day operations. The
employees are all close friends of Mike and Adele Morgan.

"It's family-owned," Adele says. "When I say family-owned, it's
people that have been around us many years."

While Morgan has a permit from the county and says she obeys state
law and the county's medical marijuana ordinance, her dispensary
remains illegal under federal law. Her two Hayward-based competitors
were shut down after raids by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
The Compassionate Collective of Alameda County was raided in 2007
and its owners are facing federal charges. The Garden of Eden shut
its doors after a DEA raid in 2008, but retains its permit.

Last October, We Are Hemp was raided by the DEA, though no charges
resulted. Morgan has also endured scrutiny and frequent
walk-throughs by Alameda County sheriff's deputies.

Morgan says the Obama administration's recent statements that DEA
raids on marijuana dispensaries will cease is a good sign. For her,
marijuana is a medicine.

"It's been around for a long, long time, but it's been labeled as a
bad thing," she says.

She is a diabetic, with a heart condition and nerve problems in her legs.

"Sometimes the pain is so bad, I can't stand it," she says. "I have
my little bit of marijuana and my therapeutic pool - that's what
keeps me going. I take my little pipe, smoke a little, then I rest
peacefully every night."

Morgan is hoping that new attitudes from the government will allow
her to continue her operation on a busy commercial corridor that
straddles Ashland, Cherryland and San Lorenzo.

"We abide by all the rules," she says. "We abide by every one to a T."

However, local homeowners could become an obstacle.

At a special meeting with the county Board of Supervisors in San
Lorenzo last month, an overwhelming majority of speakers made clear
that they do not want medical marijuana dispensaries in their
neighborhoods. Concerns were raised about marijuana getting into the
hands of children, the number of dispensaries allowed and in what
locations, crime, and that the young men who frequent the
dispensaries are "thugs" who are not purchasing marijuana for
medical purposes.

Some speakers said that if medical marijuana is to be legal, it
should be dispensed in county clinics or in pharmacies - although
Supervisor Nate Miley explained that this is unlikely because
marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

The Board of Supervisors held the meeting to provide community input
to County Counsel, which is redrafting the county's marijuana
ordinance. Last August, state Attorney General Jerry Brown released
new guidelines concerning medical marijuana, requiring dispensaries
to operate as statutory cooperatives or collectives that are not
for profit. County Counsel is rewriting its medical marijuana
ordinance to be in compliance with the new state guidelines.

The supervisors will return to San Lorenzo in the summer for
community input on the draft of the new ordinance, which is expected
to go before the board in the late summer.

Areas of disagreement

"Supervisor Miley believes that qualified patients with a doctor's
recommendation should be able to obtain medical marijuana in a safe,
clean place," said Bob Swanson, a constituent liaison for Miley -
the most vocal supporter of medical marijuana on the
board. Negative concerns regarding the dispensaries are overstated,
Swanson said.

"Anything that I have ever asked of the medical marijuana
dispensaries, they have complied immediately," Swanson said. "They
want to work with government, not against it."

Wulf Bieschke, president of the San Lorenzo Village Homes
Association, said the issue is not whether marijuana should be
legal, but how the dispensaries affect the community.

"We're trying to redevelop our downtown area. We're having a hard
time getting businesses to come already," he said. "With the stigma
of medical marijuana out there, I think it's going to give them
another reason not to come to San Lorenzo."

At the special meeting, Deputy Paul Liskey told the audience that
dispensaries lead to an increase in crime and that the Sheriff's
Office is philosophically opposed to them.

"We are there to enforce the laws, and there are conflicting laws,"
sheriff's spokesman Sgt. J.D. Nelson said. "We're not advocates in
one way or the other. We get a lot of complaints from neighbors
about the marijuana clubs. Neighbors complain that
unsavory characters come there that don't look like they
need medical care. The neighbors feel that this is nothing more
than legalized drug dealing."