CANNIBUS CLUB IN TRACY CLOSES ITS DOORS

Building Manager Asked Dispensary to Move Out; No Legal Trouble Involved

TRACY - The first cannibus buyers club in San Joaquin County was
snuffed out before it ever got rolling. And it's not because federal,
local or state agents shut down the odorous operation on the third
floor of the Opera House building in downtown Tracy.

Last Thursday - three days after it opened for business - building
manager Jim Ward said he asked the owners of the West Valley Resource
Co-Op to move out, and they were gone the next day. He said they
didn't have a problem with it.

"Whether they had a medical need for it or not, their clientele was a
little younger than I had expected," Ward said. "I just told them
things weren't working out."

He said the aroma of their product spilled out of the "club." A
business license was issued to John Norton, Sean Bruett and Daniel
Tapia on May 5 for the West Valley Resource Co-Op, city officials
said. A phone number listed on the business license had a Los Angeles
area code. A message left at the number was unreturned.

Tracy Police Capt. Mike Maciel said the operation may have been legal
to operate, within state law. "We would certainly want to ensure that
they are meeting all the requirements of state law in the operation of
the business and that the people acquiring marijuana are (qualified
patients)," Maciel said."The fact they shut down is not our doing."

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215 - the Compassionate
Use Act - giving the seriously ill the right to obtain and use
marijuana for medical purposes.

According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws, therapeutic benefits of smoking the plant are well-documented.
Marijuana provides relief from nausea, stimulates appetite and weight
gain, and helps combat glaucoma, according to the organization's Web
site.

The issue has turned into a legal dog fight between states and the
federal government. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
federal laws prohibiting the use of medical marijuana remain in effect
regardless of state laws that permitits use.

Phil Urie, deputy district attorney for San Joaquin County, said the
dispensary, if it really was one, was the first to operate in San
Joaquin County.

Even so, the way the county interprets the law, it may have also been
illegal. "Our position has always been, and continues to be, that the
retail sale of marijuana, even those who have a (doctor's)
recommendation, is not legal," Urie said.

"Grow your own, that's what 215 says. The whole (issue) with
dispensaries was completely out of the realm of Prop. 215. ...
Counties like Alameda, San Francisco and Marin, they don't have the
political guts to apply the law."

According to the Tracy City Clerk's Office, nothing relating to
cannabis clubs has come before the City Council in at least the last
13 years.