MAN WANTS TO SEE LEGAL POT DISPENSARY IN MANTECA

Richard Norris, 36, wants to create a non-profit marijuana dispensary
in Manteca saying he can bring in funds for police, fire, and the
small businesses he sees struggling in the down economy.

Norris promises to be at the Manteca City Council meeting tonight to
make his pitch in the three-minute time frame members of the public
are allotted when they are not listed on the agenda. He said he is
continuing to use that format to get the council members to see his
side of the issue.

The former construction worker, who says he was injured in the
building of the Kaiser Hospital in Modesto, also wants to establish a
cannabis nursery, but claims no one will sponsor him to be on the
council agenda. Any council member can sponsor a citizen who wants a
specific action item brought before the council as a whole for
possible action.

He said he believes there are more than 2,000 medical marijuana card
holders in the area who would patronize a dispensary and a nursery if
it were in Manteca bringing in millions of dollars.

Under California law, individual jurisdictions can allow pot
dispensaries for medicinal purposes.

I've been out of work four years and on disability for three years --
had a stroke and have no money," Norris said. He added that if he had
a small nursery he could put a lot of people to work and keep some
from losing their homes.

Norris is calling for a rally in a city park that would bring people
together and "to bring them out of the closet," saying that since he
has used marijuana for the last six months he has quit using some 17
prescriptions. He says that council members and other city officials
have turned deaf ears toward him.

Manteca Police Chief Dave Bricker said in his research he has only
seen that marijuana has no analgesic affect on pain. It has often
been reported to help with nausea that keeps patients from eating,
however.

The council still sees this as a violation of federal law," the chief
said.

He quoted California Attorney General Jerry Brown as saying every
marijuana dispensary in the state is operating outside the law.

Bricker said there is no way someone could operate a non-profit
dispensary and give the profits to a community, its fire department or
police department to help defray costs. Once the profit is turned, it
is no longer a "non-profit" and is in violation of the law, he said.

He also noted that marijuana collaborative may only sell to its
members and such a group must have some medical responsibility for
those they are supporting in their demands.

Unfortunately for the users, it stays in the system for 45 days,"
Bricker said.

He said that most of the people who acquire cards as from the Cannabis
Coalition in Oakland must stay within the collaborative. And those
collaboratives don't have to keep records as to who they issued cards,
the chief said.

Bricker said since marijuana is not recognized under federal law to be
a medication, physicians can't issue prescriptions. They can only
offer a suggestion that a patient use it -- often writing the
suggestion on nothing more than a napkin. There is no organized
process, he said.