POT SHOPS MOBILIZE TO FIGHT LA'S CRACKDOWN

Los Angeles' booming cottage industry of medical marijuana vendors is
mobilizing to fight the city's three-month crackdown that threatens to
shutter hundreds of dispensaries.

Vendors say they're prepared to take their battle to court to fulfill
the promise of Proposition 215 -- the 1996 voter-approved measure that
legalized marijuana for medicinal use. Attorney Stewart Richlin, who
represents more than 100 dispensaries, said he believes dispensaries
that have been or are about to be closed are entitled to monetary
damages. An alternative would be a court injunction allowing them to
reopen or stay open.

"State law (permits), without equivocation, the cultivation,
transportation and distribution of medical marijuana," Richlin said,
"and these cities now need to be forced by a judge and court to comply
with the law.

"These are not criminals. They are patients and centers treating
patients."

But city officials say they are pressing ahead with the crackdown
launched in June, when regulators began reviewing applications for
permits to operate the dispensaries.

They say a majority of the dispensaries are lucrative cash businesses
that require customers to provide little or no proof of medical need.
And because the dispensaries have mushroomed throughout the city, they
are now attracting crime and violence.

'A Cash Cow'

City Councilman
Dennis Zine noted that armed robbers are targeting the dispensaries,
including a heist this month at a Woodland Hills clinic, where an
operator was shot during a holdup.

"Police have now connected suspects to three robberies at (Valley)
dispensaries," Zine said. "These have become attractive to robbers
because there's a lot of cash transactions, and robbers figure they're
easy hits."

Zine is on the council's Planning, Land Use and Management committee
that has been overseeing the permit review. The committee has so far
denied all of the three dozen or so applications.

"What was designed as a compassionate use act has been turned into a
cash cow," he said. "The law has been abused by the greed of people
there to make a quick buck."

Zine said officials intend to close down the hundreds of dispensaries
that have sprung up -- often several within a few blocks -- and to
leave in place only enough to serve the legitimate needs of patients.

Marc Kent, director of a clinic in Woodland Hills and a spokesman for
a citywide coalition of dispensaries, said the clinics whose
applications have been denied have simply followed the advice of city
officials who informed them that filing an application would allow
them to remain open.

According to Kent, the coalition intends Los Angeles Marijuana
Collective Association chairman to seek an injunction against the city
to keep it from closing the medical marijuana clinics whose
applications have been rejected.

Kent said his coalition is hiring a law firm to represent them. He
said dispensary operators believe their due process rights were
violated because they received short notice of the hearings and were
given only a few minutes to make their case -- with city officials
virtually spending no time weighing the testimony.

City Councilman Ed Reyes, who chairs the council's Planning, Land Use
and Management committee, denied accusations that the dispensary
applicants were railroaded.

State law requires only 72 hours notice to place items on an agenda,
Reyes said, and officials carefully considered each application.

No Approvals Since June

Most of the requests were denied because the
dispensaries did not register with the city by the deadline in 2007.
Once the requests are denied, the city can take legal steps to force
the clinics to close.

Reyes said he intends to whittle away at the hardship exemption
applications, holding hearings in the council on a dozen or more at a
time.

In 2003, the state established legal protections for medical-marijuana
users who were issued a doctor's prescription. By 2007, when Los
Angeles had almost 200 dispensaries permitted under state law, the
City Attorney's Office issued a moratorium to block new establishments
until the city adopted a new ordinance.

Since then, 533 other dispensaries have opened without getting full
authorization from the city by using a "hardship exemption" loophole.
In all, according to industry and city estimates, the number of
dispensaries in Los Angeles total about 800. By comparison, San
Francisco has only about 30 dispensaries.

Among the San Fernando Valley dispensaries whose applications were
denied were Aloha Spirit Organic Consumables in Reseda, West Coast
Holistic Institute in Canoga Park, The Grasshopper 215 in Woodland
Hills, and Hope Collective in Winnetka.

None of the applications considered since June have been
approved.

JJ Popowich, president of the Winnetka Neighborhood Council, applauded
the rejection of the Hope Collective in Winnetka, which had worked to
shut it down.

"It's closed and boarded up," Popowich said. "The kicker was location.
It was next to a liquor store and right around the corner from a
topless bar and less than two blocks away from a school."

Officials said it is unknown how many of the dispensaries are
considered to be operating legitimately but added most operate in
violation of the moratorium.

Amy Weiss of Sherman Oaks, owner of the Buds on Melrose clinic in Los
Angeles, disagrees.

"We are going to fight back because we've followed all the guidelines,
everything (we're) supposed to do, but the city has failed to give us
due process," Weiss said.

Good Intentions

Weiss, who belongs to the
coalition of dispensaries seeking to sue the city, said she believes
her business typifies the clinics that have opened with good intentions.

"We started because my mom had breast cancer," Weiss said. "She's a
survivor and when she went through her ordeal we couldn't find a
(clinic) that catered to women and was sensitive to their needs.

"So we decided to open a collective that would be a safe haven for
breast cancer patients, though we also cater to other patients."

Dispensary operators and advocates of medical marijuana clinics argue
that the city's crackdown runs counter to the Obama administration's
position on the issue.

In February, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice
Department would no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries that
are established legally under state law.

It was a fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Barack Obama,
and marked a major shift from the previous administration.

City officials hope a new medical marijuana ordinance will help
establish clear rules for everyone and make it much easier to monitor
the industry. But no one is certain when they'll get around to
creating one.

"We're working on an ordinance to comply with Proposition 215
Compassionate Use Act to allow marijuana for medical use," Zine said.
"But we're not going to have three or four (marijuana) dispensaries on
the same block."