THE QUESTION IS, DO YOU PREFER A LEGAL DISPENSARY OR CARTELS?

Amedical marijuana dispensary - excuse me, a "health food,
supplements and herbal remedy" store - opened quietly on Acacia
Street last month.

My how times do change. Only yesterday marijuana brought jail. Now
Pathways Health Co-op is selling Purple Erkel for $55 per 1/8 oz.,
with 10 percent off for seniors.

Apparently officials, when approving Pathways, did not realize they
were approving that herbal remedy. If so, it's a good time to discuss
dispensaries in general because one in particular faces an uncertain future.

Dispensaries can be a good thing or a bad thing. An analysis of
Oakland's dispensaries found those near other merchants boosted
business. Merchants liked them.

And there is logic to dispensaries. Highly regarded Stockton doctors
have prescribed medical marijuana for years. But patients cannot fill
their prescriptions. Should a terminal cancer patient have to drive
to Sacramento? Or Oakland?

On the other hand, then-deputy District Attorney Phil Urie, now a
judge, shows a PowerPoint presentation about an L.A. dispensary that
got so big it spun out of control.

The staggering amount of money involved corrupted doctors, created
legions of fake patients and attracted gangs who demanded protection money.

But if you'll stipulate that a well-managed marijuana dispensary need
not degenerate into criminal mayhem, we will move on to another
concern: The Toothpicks.

Or, in Spanish, Los Palillos.

Los Palillos is the name of a small cartel. It took its name from
some skinny but hardcore narco-hombre. Around 2003 Los Palillos
splintered off from the Tijuana cartel. It set up shop in San Diego.

In America, not Mexico. On this side of the Thin Blue Line.

And they brought all the trappings of Mexican drug trafficking:
mountains of money, bling, serious firepower, police bribery,
kidnappings, murders, gruesome violence and wars against rivals.

Of the kidnappings, The New York Times reported last week: "Some
victims were released unharmed. Others were smothered with masking
tape, shot in the stomach or pulverized with a police battering ram
and dumped on a suburban street.

"Or they were boiled down in acid and never seen again, a technique
known in Mexico as "pozole," or Mexican stew.

If somebody became a problem to Los Palillos, they might leave a vat
of pozole - reduced human bones - outside that person's business. A
new contribution to the art of influencing people.

Higher-ups in the Tijuana cartel killed the brother of a Palillos
member. So the two cartels were feuding. The Tijuana cartel ordered a
hitman to kill Palillos members in San Diego.

But Los Palillos learned of the plan. Disguising themselves as police
officers, several abducted the hitman from his home in Bonita, tied
him up and took him to one of their suburban houses.

First they extracted $600,000 ransom from the hitman's brother. Then
they killed the hitman anyway. They pulped him with a battering ram.

Nine members of Los Palillos are now being tried in San Diego on
charges of kidnapping 13 men and killing nine. It took authorities
four years just to take that many down.

Those crimes are just the tip of the iceberg. The iceberg hasn't even
been measured. Mexican cartels often outwit and outspend law enforcement.

The reason I went into this whole telenovela is simple. Bloody
Mexican pandemonium happened in San Diego; it can happen here.

It probably already does.

In November of last year, the DEA and other agencies busted La
Amapola, a south side grocery store the Feds say was a front for the
Tijuana cartel's drug distribution and money laundering.

An investigator said then the players may have committed murders and
other undetected crimes. Only nobody dialed 911.

So the question is not whether you prefer a legal dispensary or no
legal dispensary; the question is whether you prefer a legal
dispensary or cartels.

I prefer a dispensary. Once narco-terrorists take over, the old days
of crime in Stockton will look like a cello recital.