GRAY AREAS IN POT LAW HELP THE ILL, AND THOSE WHO ARE NOT

LAKE FOREST - Michael Hawkins, a jolly looking man in loafers and a
button down shirt, walks into King's Smoke Shop and asks for the
cheapest pipe they've got.

Hawkins just came from one of five medical marijuana dispensaries that
surround King's on the second-floor of a strip mall at Raymond Way and
El Toro Road, and he's carrying a small paper bag containing cannabis
called "OG Cush" - the type that he says stops his unbearable head
aches and stimulates his appetite but doesn't make him feel high.

See, about a year and a half ago, doctors removed a tumor half the
size of Hawkins' brain from his skull. In coming weeks, he'll start
radiation to eliminate remnants of that tumor lodged behind his optic
nerve. After the surgery, Hawkins says he was a drooling zombie,
addicted to potent pain medicine. That is, until his son suggested he
try marijuana.

"It took the pain away," says Hawkins, 59, a home building contractor
before he got sick. "I hate losing control, and this doesn't make me
. The benefits far outweigh any controversy."

Moments later, 27-year-old Jeff Kwollems and a friend leave one of the
dispensaries wearing dark sunglasses and also carrying a paper bag.

"I'm a pothead to the core," Kwollems admits, saying he has a doctor's
recommendation to smoke marijuana for an old snowboarding injury, but
he'd light up regardless. "There are tons of potheads here. No one can
sell weed on the streets anymore because of all the clubs
(dispensaries)."

These two men both smoke marijuana within the parameters of state law.
But the vast difference between their ages, ailments and attitudes
contributes to the suspicion and debate that continues to swirl over
the use of the drug 13 years after California voters made it legal for
the sick to use cannabis.

The U.S. Department of Justice said last month that it would stop
pursuing federal drug cases against defendants who comply with state
medical marijuana laws. But local governments across the state are
struggling to find fair ways to regulate and police dispensaries - or
outlaw them all together.

And herein lies the problem: Medical marijuana dispensaries, their
providers and patients operate in a legal twilight where generally the
business they're in -- providing medical marijuana to sick people --
is legal under state law, but the specifics of how they do so may not
be.

Who Can Smoke

California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, making it legal for
patients and their caregivers to possess and grow marijuana for
medical use with a doctor's recommendation.

Ailments that qualify under that law are as specific as cancer and
AIDS and as general as "any other illness for which marijuana provides
relief."

Since then, doctors who specialize in making marijuana recommendations
have cropped up across the state, advertising in the back of weekly
publications and with stacks of glossy fliers left in medical
marijuana dispensaries and head shops. They quote business men and
older ladies and soldiers about how medical marijuana has changed
their lives. California NORML (National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws) lists 10 such specialists in Orange County.

Doctors are supposed to give their patients a full examination before
they make a recommendation, which is usually good for a year. Many ask
for medical records confirming conditions for which their patients are
seeking relief. Most charge a flat fee, and some doctors will refund
the fee if the exam doesn't result in a recommendation.

"Some of the doctors are crooked," says Monica Hernandez, a manager at
the Lake Forest Alternative Center collective. "That's where the
medical board should come in."

But if doctors are widely abusing the system and handing out
prescriptions to anyone who walks in the door, then very few are
getting in trouble. California Attorney General guidelines say the
state's medical licensing board is responsible for investigating
complaints against doctors.

Since 1996, only 10 doctors have been sanctioned after 21 complaints -
the majority for recommending marijuana to patients without a proper
examination, records show. None of the sanctioned doctors listed
office addresses in Orange County.

Where to Get It

Before 2003, there were not many legal options for patients who
legitimately had a use for marijuana: They could either grow it
themselves, a caregiver could grow it for them or they could buy it
illegally. In 2003, the lawmakers recognized another option --
allowing patients and caregivers "collectively or cooperatively to
cultivate marijuana for medical purposes."

The caveat: They could not make a profit.

Attorney general guidelines issued last year offered further guidance:
A "properly organized and operated collective or cooperative that
dispenses medical marijuana through a storefront may be lawful." The
State board of Equalization also requires dispensaries to collect
sales tax and requires "businesses that engaging in such transactions
hold a sellers permit," according to the attorney general guidelines.

The guidelines allow collectives to account for the costs of producing
and distributing medical marijuana, and they prohibit sales to and
purchases from people who are not members of the collective.

Still, that leaves many questions unanswered: What constitutes a
"sale" of marijuana? Are dispensary staff and operators entitled to
take a salary? If so, what amount is reasonable? Can growers in remote
counties be members of multiple urban collectives and grow enough
marijuana to supply all of them? Can cities and counties enact
complete bans on dispensaries, and to what degree can they regulate
them?

"Those are issues that the courts are going to have to resolve over
time," Deputy Attorney General Peter Krause said.

So cities, law enforcement officials and medical marijuana advocates
are left to interpret the laws as they see fit, then sort out their
disagreements in court.

For example, more than 100 cities and seven counties have laws banning
medical marijuana dispensaries, according to the advocacy group
Americans for Safe Access. A group of patients sued the city of
Anaheim over its ban, and their case now in appellate court -- could
determine whether cities can legally outlaw dispensaries or whether
they need to regulate them instead, said Americans for Safe Access
spokesman Kris Hermes.

The legality of medical marijuana sales could be next in court.
Concerned by a dizzying proliferation of medical marijuana
dispensaries in Los Angeles, the city's attorney and the district
attorney last month promised to shut down dispensaries across town.
They maintain that most are selling marijuana for profit in violation
of state law.

"Sales are unlawful," says David Berger, a special assistant attorney
for the city of Los Angeles. "Unless the collective can show that it's
not a profit-based enterprise and its members are active and not
simply walking in off the street, signing a form and paying $50 for an
eighth of an ounce, then it will be viewed as a sale."

But advocates such as James Anthony, a land use attorney for medical
marijuana dispensaries in Oakland, says Los Angeles officials are
making weak legal arguments to support their ideological agenda to ban
medical marijuana dispensaries.

"An effective way to do that is to say you can't sell, but there has
to be a sale, to pay the bills, or rent," he says. "What product are
you going to be able to produce and distribute without money? When my
mother got ovarian cancer, she did not wake up and go to the back
yard. A system that suddenly requires sick people to turn into farmers
is doomed to failure."

And Hermes says sales are clearly legal because the state collects
sales tax on cannabis sales and has decriminalized the distribution of
medical marijuana among qualified patients and caregivers.

Still, like their Los Angeles counterparts, Orange County law
enforcement officials also suspect that the majority of the
dispensaries here are just storefronts for illegal drug dealing where
dispensary owners are illegally profiting. And they've long focused on
combating crime they say surrounds them, such as dispensary robberies,
indoor growers and marijuana delivery services. They field complaints
from neighbors concerned about suspicious activity surrounding some
dispensaries.

Joe D'Agostino, an Orange County senior assistant district attorney
who oversees the agency's narcotics division, says his office will
prosecute any case where they can prove a violation of medical
marijuana law. During the past two years, the division has filed cases
against 1,270 defendants for illegal cultivation or possession of
marijuana to sell. Most of those defendants bring up medical marijuana
as a defense during some point in the investigation - just to see if
it will work - but very few of those cases were against medical
marijuana dispensaries or their members.

"We're not used to a moving target," D'Agostino said. "Robbery is
always illegal. This sometimes is, and it makes it a little dicier to
prosecute."

It's not easy for cities, either, and mistakes aren't
cheap.

Garden Grove spent $250,000 after being sued for refusing to return 8
grams of medical marijuana to patient Felix Kha that police
confiscated during a traffic stop in 2005. Kha later produced medical
documentation that he was entitled to use marijuana. The city was
forced to pay $139,000 in legal fees to Americans for Safe Access,
which represented Kha, plus their own legal costs.

So far, the city of Lake Forest has spent $35,373.75 on an outside
attorney for its civil lawsuit aimed at shutting down 14 dispensaries
inside the city.

The Reality

The reality is that small growers from across the state - and a couple
of larger, more commercial sellers - provide pot to dispensaries,
advocates and patients say. Police also say marijuana is smuggled into
the country.

Anthony, the land use attorney, says centralized cultivation would be
more efficient for collectives. No city in this state has ever
licensed a dispensary to do a large scale grow, he says. He believes
that some more progressive cities could take up those issues soon, but
says that federal law makes the idea of regulated, large-scale
marijuana crops "suicidal."

Not only is marijuana illegal in the eyes of the U.S. government,
federal law allows the death penalty for people convicted of
cultivating more than 60,000 plants, he says.

"Medical cannabis dispensaries are obviously on the front lines of
civil disobedience," Anthony says. "Most cultivators are a little shy.
Their property is at risk, their liberty is at risk, their children
are at risk."

Since there's no regulation, practices for cultivating and
distributing marijuana vary.

Harborside Health Center is one of four licensed dispensaries in
Oakland, with 74 employees and revenues of about $20 million, the New
York Times reports. The city regularly audits dispensary books, and
left-over cash is rolled back into the center to pay for counseling
and yoga sessions for patients.

Jason Andrews runs a collective and mobile delivery service from his
home in La Habra, where he also grows about 30 plants. He says someday
he'd like to own a larger-scale growing facility.

Andrews says he smokes most of the pot he grows he was in a car
accident and has a recommendation for marijuana for pain from four
ruptured disks in his back. He was a recreational smoker for 20 years
before that. What's left over, he contributes to the collective or
other collectives where he's a member.

Some of his patients - he's officially got about 150 of them - also
grow and contribute to the collective. Many of them are small-time
growers who raise the plants in their homes. Others are commercial
growers in northern California.

A friend periodically travels to Humboldt County to pick up batches of
marijuana. Andrews pays the friend, and distributes it to the members
of his collective when they call for a delivery. Most pay, but he also
tries to donate or cut deals to members who can't, especially those
who are terminally ill. Andrews says he's got some of the lowest
prices around.

"I try to get a little bit more on what I got for it," Andrews says.
"All that money goes into my business account. That money goes in to
pay my electricity, my gas in my truck for deliveries, insurance, cell
phones and part of my rent on my house."

The proceeds from his personal garden go into his personal bank
account. All told, he says he'll make about $20,000 to $24,000 this
year after his business expenses. He also is collecting disability.

The way Andrews sees it, he's operating legally. He went onto
Legalzoom.com for help establishing his collective Code 215 as a
501c(3) nonprofit. He has a doctor's recommendation for medical
marijuana and has registered for two state ID cards one as a patient
and one as a caregiver. He's got a sellers permit from the state board
of equalization.

If the collective makes a profit, Andrews says he'll redistribute the
cash among his members at the end of the year.

What's Happing Next

Orange County could soon make it clearer for dispensaries setting up
shop in the county's unincorporated areas. Supervisor Janet Nguyen is
developing a countywide policy that would regulate dispensaries, after
learning that three new ones recently opened in Midway City.

"They're getting too many of them popping up, and there's no process
at all for opening one of the other areas," Nguyen said. "What I was
told is that the people who visit the three in Midway are really all
young people. They're not the disabled cancer survivors."

Her chief of staff Andrew Do, a former prosecutor, says the proposed
ordinance will contain provisions that allow the county to inspect
dispensary records and ensure they're nonprofit enterprises. They'll
also make sure dispensaries can't open near schools or day care
centers, and he's considering a provision that would require all the
marijuana dispensed in the county to be grown here, as well.

"I don't want it be a truck shipping it in from New Mexico or
Arizona," Do said. "I also don't want it to be plants grown here and
shipped throughout the state -- so that it's not a sham."

Meanwhile, as medical marijuana advocates and municipalities continue
to negotiate their positions, the same disagreement is playing out
over whether to legalize marijuana for all Californians - sick or well.

On Wednesday, the state Assembly heard some three hours of testimony
about Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's bill to regulate and tax marijuana. No
vote has yet been taken on the bill and none is scheduled. Meanwhile,
activist groups are trying to get at least three different initiatives
to legalize marijuana on the 2010 ballot.

Ryan Landers is a spokesman for one - The California Cannabis
Initiative. He also is terminally ill with AIDS and was involved in
the creation of Prop.215 and the state medical marijuana
identification card program, he says. Landers hopes the state
eventually will legalize marijuana for all, but even if that happens,
he believes legal challenges to marijuana use will continue.

He's prepared for that.

"If I back off, I'm dead," Landers said. "Marijuana has saved my life,
and I will not back off."