LA’S TOP PROSECUTOR TO TARGET POT SHOPS

LOS ANGELES – Clay Tepel knew there were risks to setting up a medical
marijuana shop: it could lose money, be robbed or be raided by
authorities.

Still, he wasn’t expecting the phone call one August day when a voice
said the police were outside and he needed to open up or they would
bust down the door. His first thought, that it was a joke, turned to
terror when he opened the door.

Heavily armed officers in helmets, bulletproof vests and, oddly
enough, Bermuda shorts stormed his store, handcuffed him, disabled
security cameras and seized his drugs before taking him to jail. When
he asked why his shop was invaded, an officer responded, “We’re
closing them all down.”

Those words could prove prescient after Los Angeles County District
Attorney Steve Cooley said last week that he wanted to shutter clinics
that sold pot for profit. Cooley’s plan is the latest salvo in a
prolonged conflict in California over whether medical marijuana is
having its intended effect or is being abused by the larger population.

Until recently, raids on clinics typically led to federal
prosecutions, but Cooley’s remarks and similar ones from Attorney
General Jerry Brown signal a new approach to clear the haze left by
Proposition 215, the 1996 state ballot measure that allowed sick
people with referrals from doctors and an identification card to smoke
pot.

“Everybody is scared,” said Tepel, who has spoken with other pot store
operators. “Why are voters’ rights being stepped all over? This kind
of blind justice has to stop.”

The crackdown is a crushing blow for dispensary owners who were
relieved in March when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said federal
agents would go after marijuana distributors who violated both federal
and state laws.

A new policy memo issued Monday by the Justice Department told
prosecutors that pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers
should not be targeted for federal prosecution in states that allow
medical marijuana. The guidelines do, however, make it clear that
federal agents will go after people whose distribution goes beyond
what is permitted under state law or use medical marijuana as a cover
for other crimes.

The comments that Holder made this year appear to have emboldened
entrepreneurs as marijuana shops cropped up across California. In Los
Angeles alone, there are an estimated 800 dispensaries, more than any
other city in the nation. In 2005, there were only four, authorities
said.

Cooley contends a vast majority of several hundred outlets his office
investigated aren’t following state law. Initially, the law allowed
authorized marijuana users to grow their own plants, but lawmakers
revised the law in 2003 to allow collectives to provide pot grown by
members.

Cooley said he would target stores who were profiting and selling to
people who don’t qualify for medicinal marijuana.

“All those who are operating illegally, our advice to them is to shut
down voluntarily and they won’t be subject to prosecution,” Cooley
told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

At the same time, advocates are gathering signatures to get as many as
three pot-legalization measures on next year’s ballot in California.
One poll shows voters would support legalizing marijuana outright.
Thirteen states, including California, allow medical marijuana.

Cooley said his office had been assessing the rush of marijuana
dispensaries for the past two years and had provided training for his
staff during the past several months in anticipation of filing cases.

“Holder’s statement probably created the impression that there wasn’t
going to be any federal investigation or prosecution of these
entities,” Cooley said. “There has to be some clarification.”