FIRST JOAQUIN POT CLUB CLOSES DAYS AFTER OPENING

TRACY -- The first Cannabis Buyers Club in San Joaquin County was
snuffed out before it ever got rolling.

And it is not because federal, local or state agents shut down the
odorous operation on the third floor of the Opera House building in
downtown Tracy.

Last Thursday -- three days after opening for business -- building
manager Jim Ward said he asked the owners of the West Valley Resource
Co-Op to move out, and they were gone the next day. He said they
didn't have a problem with it.

"Whether they had a medical need for it or not, their clientele was a
little younger than I had expected," Ward said. "I just told them
things weren't working out."

He said the aroma of their product spilled out of the
"club."

May 5 for the West Valley Resource Co-Op, city officials said. A phone
number listed on the business license had a Los Angeles area code. A
message left at the number was not returned.

Tracy police Capt. Mike Maciel said the operation may have been legal
to operate, within state law.

"We would certainly want to ensure that they are meeting all the
requirements of state law in the operation of the business and that
the people acquiring marijuana are (qualified patients)," Maciel said.
"The fact they shut down is not our doing."

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215 -- the Compassionate
Use Act -- providing the seriously ill with the right to obtain and
use marijuana for medical purposes.

for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, therapeutic benefits from smoking
the plant are well-documented. Marijuana provides relief from nausea,
stimulates appetite and weight gain, and helps combat glaucoma,
according the organization's Web site.

The issue has turned into a legal dogfight between states and the
federal government. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
federal laws prohibiting the use of medical marijuana remain in effect
regardless of state laws that permit its use.

Phil Urie, deputy district attorney for San Joaquin County, said the
dispensary, if it really was one, was the first to operate in San
Joaquin County.

Even so, the way the county interprets the law, it may have been
illegal.

"Our position has always been, and continues to be, that the retail
sale of marijuana, even to those who have a (doctor's) recommendation,
is not legal," Urie said.

"Grow your own, that's what 215 says. The whole (issue) with
dispensaries was completely out of the realm of Prop. 215 ... Counties
like Alameda, San Francisco and Marin, they don't have the political
guts to apply the law."

According to the Tracy City Clerk's Office, nothing relating to
cannabis clubs has come before the City Council in at least the last
13 years.