MARIJUANA COLLECTIVE IN RIVERSIDE BOASTS OF INCREASED CUSTOMERS

Three weeks after opening, the sole medical marijuana source in the
city of Riverside has no shortage of customers.

The Inland Empire Health and Wellness Center Medical Marijuana
Collective, which opened Dec. 5 on North Main Street, requires a
doctor's recommendation for marijuana and is open only to members.

After starting with about 150 members, collective general manager
William Sump said Friday, "We'll probably hit 500 today."

Organizers describe the collective as a farmer's market in which
vendors who grow the drug can sell it to other patients. The
collective takes a small cut of the money to cover expenses.

Riverside officials have maintained that city zoning forbids medical
marijuana facilities of any kind, but Sump said city officials and
law enforcement have not contacted him since the facility opened.

Within 10 minutes of the collective's 11 a.m. opening time Friday,
nearly a dozen people crowded the lobby area, filling out paperwork
to become members or having their IDs checked if they were returning
patients. A security guard waved a metal detecting wand
over members before letting them past the front counter.

Among those waiting was David Stone, a 47-year-old Riverside
resident who arrived in a wheelchair and wearing a Santa hat.

He said he has used medical marijuana for two years to alleviate
prostate problems, lymphoma, lower back pain and other medical
issues. Of all the dispensaries he's used, "I like this facility
better than all of them."

The prices are better and the location is closer to home, he said.

"They helped me out last time I came in. I told them I'm hurting and
I didn't have a lot of money," and the vendor gave him a deal, Stone said.

For the first hour, Sump bustled around answering questions, taking
calls on his cell phone and looking for extra tables to accommodate
more vendors.

Since the first weekend -- the collective is open Friday through
Sunday -- the number of vendors has risen along with the number of
patients. Craig Crawley, 51, of Temecula said he's been selling at
the collective all three weeks and saw vendors increase from about
five the first day to 15 last Friday.

Crawley has been cultivating marijuana for 36 years. He also works
with dispensaries where he drops off his product and someone sells
it for him, he said, so he's excited about being able to interact
directly with patients at the collective.

"The goal here is to get affordable medicine to patients," he said.

The city has said the collective isn't allowed and the Riverside
County district attorney's position is that such facilities
generally are illegal, but whether enforcement is planned is unknown.

"If there's going to be a city action, it would be on the legal
front through the police department," City Councilman Mike Gardner
said. "I don't know whether there is a plan to do that or not."

District attorney's spokesman John Hall on Friday would not confirm
or deny any investigation into the Riverside facility.