DEBATE OVER MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES CONTINUES TO RAGE

At 54, Maria de la Luz Madrigal suffers from severe rheumatoid
arthritis, which has made her everyday life very complicated.

Taking a bath, getting dressed, walking or even hugging her
grandchildren can be difficult for the Fontana resident, who is
thinking about applying for a marijuana ID card in San Bernardino
County in her attempt to gain relief from her pain.

However, such an ID card could be useless if the county decides not
to allow marijuana dispensaries to open in the region, as the Inland
Valley Drug Free Community Coalition is urging authorities to do.

Medical fraud marijuana is a business and these operators and
so-called pot docs can make millions of dollars a year on their
sales. They are well funded by a drug legalization lobby which
tricked Californians into voting for Proposition 215 in 1996 which
allowed pot for terminally ill patients, or so we thought," stated
the coalition on a press release. "While the U.S. Supreme Court
recently refused to hear an appeal by our county on the issuance of
pot ID cards, there is no law mandating a jurisdiction to allow for
pot shops. In fact, it is a violation of federal law to do so."

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors recently directed
staff to explore options for marijuana dispensaries within the
county. To date, the region has zero marijuana dispensaries, and past
attempts to open some have failed.

Opponents to marijuana dispensaries argue that they increase crime in
the surrounding areas and that they act as a front for illicit businesses.

However, Bruce Mirken, spokesperson for the Washington D.C.-based
Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), stated that dispensaries are
necessary to prevent patients from exposing themselves to crime by
looking for marijuana on the streets.

The question is, should the patients be left out of options when
seeking medical marijuana? Why face street vendors when they can
easily go to a dispensary?" said Mirken. "In some regions, patients
have to drive long distances to acquire their dosage; some even grow
their own plants; all of that could be avoided by allowing
dispensaries to open."

Opponents also urge the county to analyze the situation at
neighboring counties and cities such as Los Angeles, where there are
more than 800 pot shops -- "sometimes four at a corner -- more than
McDonalds and Starbucks combined," according to the Inland Valley
Drug Free Community Coalition.

The law enforcement community believes in something called the Broken
Window Theory," said the coalition. "In short, when a house in a
neighborhood allows for a crack in a window to go unfixed, then other
things begin to fall apart, and soon, other homes in the neighborhood
begin to let their guard down and they too fail to fix the problems.
Eventually, you have an entire neighborhood that has fallen apart
because the little things were ignored in the beginning and not dealt
with properly. Hence the failures we see in San Francisco and Los
Angeles could happen in San Bernardino unless we stand united against
the pro-drug lobby."

The U.S. government code states that "cities may not authorize the
operation of dispensaries, or even cooperatives or collectives, for
the purpose of cultivating or distributing marijuana for medical
purposes," stated the coalition. If the County allows that to happen,
it will be in conflict with federal guidelines, opponents said.

However, being in conflict with federal rules is not new in the
region. Recently, the county approved an ID system for medical
marijuana patients, which allows them to possess small quantities of
marijuana for medical purposes.

Josie Gonzales, the county's 5th District supervisor, said that the
county had no option but to approve the decision after spending "a
great amount of taxpayers' money." The issue needs to be carefully
analyzed to prevent the cards from reaching the wrong hands, she said.

It is a very difficult issue, one that needs to be studied more
deeply. The idea is to provide relief for patients and also to
prevent falsification of cards," said Gonzales.

In the meantime, Madrigal will continue experiencing extreme pain in
her joints -- pain which she said could be relieved by using
marijuana bought at a local dispensary rather than on the street corner.