FRESNO TRIES TO STAMP OUT POT DISPENSARIES

Medical Marijuana Businesses Crop Up Around Town, With Federal and
State Law at Odds.

All of a sudden, medical marijuana has become a thriving business in
Fresno -- in storefronts around town and in Superior Court.

In recent months, at least nine dispensaries have taken root in the
aftermath of a change in federal drug policy. Now city officials are
asking a judge to shut them all down under a city zoning rule that
the businesses say is impossible to comply with.

Lawyers for the city and the businesses are scheduled to face off
Sept. 17 before Judge Alan M. Simpson on the city's request for
injunctions that would force the businesses to close.

At a hearing Wednesday, Simpson said he was likely to grant the
city's request. But defense lawyers say they will argue that the
city's rule is invalid because it requires the businesses to be
consistent with both a state law that allows them and a federal law
that still treats marijuana as an illegal drug.

"When the state law authorizes an activity, no city can draft a law
to block it," said Auberry attorney William McPike, whose business
card includes the words "medical marijuana defense" and a picture of
a marijuana leaf.

The controversy stems from the fact that, as a result of a ballot
initiative passed by voters in 1996, California law permits medical
marijuana use. Federal law still considers marijuana possession a
crime, although Attorney General Eric Holder announced in March that
federal agents would stop raiding medical marijuana distributors that
comply with their state laws.

At the local level, a city zoning rule originally adopted in 2006
allows medical marijuana businesses "only if consistent with state
and federal law." Because federal law still bans the drug, city
officials argue that the businesses are zoning violations and can be
shut down for that reason alone.

Assistant City Attorney Doug Sloan said Friday that even if its
injunction request is denied, the city may press on by challenging
whether the businesses are complying with all of the state law's requirements.

In all, eight of the nine businesses were at issue in Wednesday's
hearing. Actions against all eight had been filed within the past
nine days; the ninth was filed Aug. 13.

Their operators, in many cases, had not even been served when the
hearing began. Confusion reigned in the courtroom. McPike told the
judge he wasn't even sure how many clients he had because things were
moving so fast.

Most of the businesses had been open for mere weeks.

"We've been in business since the first of August. We were just
getting started," said Michael Parks, whose Sierra Natural Healing
Collective occupies a Highway City storefront.

Like many such businesses, Parks operates as a collective: Some
members grow marijuana for all to use. Parks said about 70% of
members pay suggested donations ranging from $10 to $25 per gram or
$175 to $420 per ounce.

To comply with state law, members first need a doctor's
recommendation, which is checked at a desk in front. Then they make
their selections from rows of small green containers like those used
for prescriptions.

At some businesses, marijuana also is available baked into food such
as brownies. Parks doesn't offer foods, but he does have an extract
of marijuana in liquid form, packaged in glass bottles with
eyedroppers in the cap.

Parks said he and his wife started their business as a service to
medical marijuana patients, many of them disabled.

Daniel Phillips is a collective member who said he suffered
post-traumatic stress disorder from the first Gulf War. He describes
medical marijuana as "my attitude adjustment" and said "it helps the
receptors in my brain deal with the physical pain" of an old knee injury.

Parks said he uses medical marijuana himself for pain from injuries
he suffered in motorcycle accidents.

"We haven't made any money yet," he said. Partly, he said, that's
because of legal fees resulting from the city's action.

One of his lawyers, Fresno attorney Kenneth E. Clark, predicted the
businesses will prevail in court. He called the city's zoning rule
"an abuse of the law to facilitate policy" on medical marijuana use.

"Someone is trying to use an obscure little code section to thwart
the will of the people of California," who voted 13 years ago in
favor of medical marijuana use, Clark said.

But Sloan said several other California cities have successfully
banned medical marijuana businesses either via their zoning codes or
simply by declaring moratoriums.

Simpson ordered the attorneys for all nine businesses to submit their
arguments a week before the Sept. 17 hearing. But he sent clear
signals Wednesday that he was leaning toward granting the city's
request for an injunction, based on a recent appellate ruling in
another medical marijuana case in Riverside County.

"The conclusion looks virtually inescapable at this point that the
operation of a medical marijuana dispensary in violation of the
zoning ordinance is something that this court would be required to
enjoin," the judge said.

Whether he will change that view after hearing what the defense has
to say remains to be seen. But their attorneys are confident that the
law is on their side.

"Ultimately, this will be decided in favor of the patients," Clark
said. "We will get this sorted out."