TIMES TURN TOUGH FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Medical marijuana patients are concerned about the high price of
medical cannabis in Santa Cruz and want more dispensaries. But the
Santa Cruz Police Department is concerned about what such an increase
could mean for the community.

On Jan. 26, the members of City Council extended their moratorium on
medicinal marijuana dispensaries, a temporary ban that has been in
place since June 2009. The moratorium allows operating dispensaries
to remain in business but prevents new ones from opening up. This
allows the City Planning Commission four more months to continue its
study on medicinal marijuana sales in the city.

In the coming months, the commission will make recommendations to the
City Council on what regulations, if any, to place on the
dispensaries. Cities across California are considering similar
reforms, and many have already passed them.

"It's become a huge issue," Councilmember Katherine Biers said. "You
pick up the paper, and you see every community is struggling with it."

Most notably, the City of Los Angeles passed an ordinance in January
that will force over 500 medicinal marijuana dispensaries to close.
The nearby San Benito County city of Hollister has banned
dispensaries altogether. And the City of Monterey passed a temporary
ban forcing its one dispensary to close.

There are currently two medicinal marijuana dispensaries in the city
of Santa Cruz, both of them located in the Harvey West Business Park
neighborhood. Capt. Steve Clark of the Santa Cruz Police Department
(SCPD) said that one of them, the Santa Cruz Patients Collective,
recently proposed a 10,000-square-foot indoor growing facility. Clark
said that, according to research done by SCPD, the facility had the
potential to grow $45 million worth of medicinal marijuana per year.

The Santa Cruz Patients Collective could not be reached for comment,
but Clark expressed concern over the findings and doesn't think the
community needs any more medical marijuana.

"When I saw that, I said, 'You've got to be kidding me.' I seriously
doubt the whole Central Coast spends $45 million a year on medicinal
marijuana," Clark said. "So that begs the question: where is the
excess going?"

Clark is also concerned about outside influences coming into the
city. Last June, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that just 25
percent of medical marijuana patients using Santa Cruz dispensaries
live within the city. Fifty percent were from within the county but
outside the city, and another 25 percent came from outside the county.

J. Craig Canada, a medical marijuana patient who lives in downtown
Santa Cruz, said that medical marijuana in Santa Cruz is too
expensive. He added that the only solution would be to increase
competition and bring in more outlets.

"The prices here are far too much," Canada said. "The people who need
it most are the people who have Social Security disability. That's
why they're disabled. That's why they can't work -- because they're
very sick."

Clark is concerned, however, that increasing the amount of marijuana
in town might lead to an increase in other crimes. He says it could
be difficult for the police department to handle drug-related
incidents. Measure K, a voter-passed initiative from 2006, has
already made marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority in Santa Cruz.

"From a police department standpoint, we're tired. We're so tired of
being put in the middle of that issue," Clark said. "Somebody stand
up and have the guts to make a decision here. Either decide that it's
going to be legal, or it's not."

Canada, who supports legalization of marijuana, expressed sympathy
for police officers. He also said that he typically travels to San
Francisco to buy from dispensaries where he can save $150 on medical
marijuana per visit -- a trip that might be difficult to make for
someone with a severe disability.

Some small-business entrepreneurs planned to open up dispensaries and
applied for permits last summer. But they must wait until the
temporary moratorium ends to see if City Council will allow them to
open up for business.

There is no word on exactly what regulations will be proposed, or
whether a cap on the number of dispensaries will be included when the
moratorium ends in early May. However, Mayor Mike Rotkin said he is
open to having one or two more in Santa Cruz.

Councilmember Biers said City Council will look carefully at the
issue, and expects the Planning Commission to do the same in their
recommendations.

"The council wants them to look at all angles of it," Biers said, "so
that if we do it, we do it right -- if we make changes, we make the
right ones."