MEDI-POT CO-OP IN THE WORKS

A new medical marijuana co-op in Nevada County is now openly seeking
members as the discussion for safe access continues to sting area
residents amid pot busts and possible dispensaries.

Nevada County resident Charles Day has worked for months to formulate
the co-op, Harmony Holistic Health, and is now prepared to accept
members for the "grassroots, membership-based collective," according
to an advertisement placed in The Union and on the co-op's Web site,
(www.harmonyholisitchealth.org).

"We're good people, trying to do a good thing," Day said. "I don't
want this to be about me."

From an organizational standpoint, the co-op would only benefit
members as outlined by state law and the California attorney general,
Day said. It would not have a "storefront presence."

"No, we don't need a location at this time," Day said. "We have the people.

"(The co-op) is a closed circuit and all functions in regard to the
medicine stay within the circuit," Day explained. "It is clearly
stated within the law that the diversion of that medicine is not OK.
It really is necessary to serve and protect our membership."

Harmony Holistic Health as an organization that not only would
provide medical marijuana, but would supply necessary information
regarding members' rights under state law.

"Most people, who are legally qualified patients, walk out of the
doctor's office with no information," Day said. "They don't have the
information they need to be safe, or protected."

The co-op would also help with information for personal cultivation, Day said.

Down the road, the organization would by providing services for other
holistic health methods, said Day, who is a general contractor and
uses medical marijuana for chronic pain. He also has a medical
marijuana card; one of only four people in Nevada County who carry
that distinction.

Harmony Holistic Health comes to fruition less than a month after the
Nevada City Council voted to draft an ordinance banning medical
marijuana dispensaries. It also comes at a time when Grass Valley and
Nevada County have moratoriums for medical marijuana dispensaries.

"I'm a little disappointed to see that access to (medical marijuana)
is being slowed," Day said.

Day has sought legal counsel to help formulate the co-op, but has not
consulted District Attorney Cliff Newell, or spoken to Nevada City
Vice Mayor Robert Bergman who opined that a co-op was possible in
Nevada County without the need for a dispensary.

"When (Bergman) said that, I knew it was time," Day said.