Marin Medical Pot Dispensaries Laud New Fed Policy

The managers of Marin medical marijuana dispensaries welcomed the
news Monday that the Obama administration intends to honor state laws
that permit the sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Pot-smoking patients and their sanctioned suppliers should not be
targeted for federal prosecution in states that allow medical
marijuana, prosecutors were told in a new policy memo issued by the
Justice Department. The memo advises prosecutors they "should not
focus federal resources in your states on individuals whose actions
are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws
providing for the medical use of marijuana."

"It's huge. It's long overdue and I'm starting to feel a great deal
of personal relief, considering I've been in litigation with the
federal government for 12 years over my medical marijuana
dispensary," said Lynette Shaw, who has operated the Marin Alliance
for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax for 13 years.

Berta Bollinger, co-president of the Caregiver Compassion Group,
which opened at 495 Gate Five Road in Sausalito in August, said,
"It's a good deal. It will help everybody feel a little bit safer.
It's about time. Go after those commercial grows that are illegal and
leave us alone."

Under the policy spelled out in a three-page legal memo, federal
prosecutors are being told it is not a good use of their time to
arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict
compliance with state law. The guidelines issued by the department do,
however, make it clear that federal agents will go after people whose
marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law
or use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes.

"It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute
patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying
with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug
traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to
mask activities that are clearly illegal," Attorney General Eric
Holder said in a statement.

After California's Proposition 215 in 1996 legalized possession and
cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes by patients who obtain
doctor approval, individuals attempted to open medical marijuana
dispensaries in several Marin cities. But only one club, the Marin
Alliance, was successful in gaining the approval of the city in which
it is located.

But over the past year new marijuana dispensaries have begun popping
up in Marin: one in Novato, two in Sausalito and two in Corte Madera.
The Novato dispensary, the Apela Collective, lost its lease after
city officials applied pressure on its landlord, and Gate Five
Caregivers in Sausalito, the first of the new dispensaries to open,
also closed.

But the Caregiver Compassion Group in Sausalito and Corte Madera's
two dispensaries - Marin Holistic Solution at 200 Tamal Plaza and
Going Green at 402 Tamal Plaza - continue to operate although without
city permits.

Shaw said she had been concerned that the Obama administration might
pick up where the Clinton administration left off. In 1998, the
Justice Department sued Shaw and several other medical marijuana
dispensaries, seeking an injunction to close them down. The Marin
Alliance was protected from closure while Shaw appealed an initial
decision against her to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court
rejected her appeal last December.

Now, however, "I think they're going to leave us alone," Shaw said.
"I'm happy to say at least in my little corner of the world my
patients are safe."

That may not be the case for Marin's other dispensaries.

"We are pursuing the issue," Bob Pendoley, Corte Madera's assistant
town manager, said regarding the two dispensaries in his town. What
does that mean?

"I don't want to tell you," Pendoley said. "At this point we're
working on it. We don't want to go into the details."