POT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

In his gray Donegal tweed cap, untucked dress shirt and jeans, Josh
Clark hardly looks the part of a delivery man. Then again, he's not
coming to the door with pizza or Chinese food.

On a warm afternoon last week, the 30-year-old Petaluma resident
walked up to a modest single-story home in Santa Rosa's Junior College
neighborhood to deliver a white envelope with about an eighth of an
ounce of marijuana to a man in his mid-70s with skin cancer and
compressed discs.

The delivery -- worth about $45 -- was a freebie for "someone who
really needs it," Clark said. A general contractor by trade, Clark
operates Sonoma Cannabis Caregivers, a delivery service that is part
of the latest trend in the sale of medical marijuana.

With cities and counties moving to ban, restrict or regulate
dispensaries of medical marijuana, a growing number of delivery
services are cropping up in California, and on the North Coast. The
trend takes advantage of the gray area between the state's 14-year-old
"compassionate use" law and local regulations.

"There's a massive influx of people wanting to break into the
industry," Clark said.

A study by California Watch, a project of the nonprofit Center for
Investigative Reporting, found that these services, particularly in
Southern California, are grabbing more and more of the medical
marijuana market.

In Sonoma County, closer to the cultivation of what is regarded as the
state's biggest cash crop, home delivery of medical marijuana is not
as extensive as it is such areas as Los Angeles.

It's unclear exactly how many delivery services exist on the North
Coast. California Norml, a group advocating the legalization of
marijuana, lists about a dozen delivery services in the "North Coast
and Inland."

These services advertise in newspapers, on Craigslist and on websites
such as Weedmaps.com, typically offering daily deliveries to
"qualified" patients with valid medical marijuana ID cards. They say
the benefits of home delivery are simple.

"You want to pay $50 for a pizza and have to go get it, or $25 and
have it delivered," said Lawrence, who asked that his last name not be
used. He is the director of Novato-based Green Door Wellness Education
Center, a medical marijuana collective that has been making deliveries
for about a month.

He said the collective's storefront closed April 22 because of alleged
zoning violations. Rather than fight the city of Novato, he said took
his collective to the streets, delivering to homes, in parking lots,
wherever it's convenient.

"They closed down our brick-and-mortar storefront, so now we're
resorting to this," he said, adding that the delivery service
typically is limited to a 30-minute driving radius a $50 minimum purchase.

"I can't be chasing $20 or $5. Nobody is showing up at the pharmacy
with $5 looking for one pain pill," he said.

Eric Litchfield, who heads the narcotics division of the Santa Rosa
Police Department, said he's aware of only one inquiry to the city for
licensing of a "mobile dispensary."

"I can't keep up with the cultivation and the dispensaries," he said.
"Delivery services haven't really come on the radar yet."

In Sonoma County, a delivery service called North Coast Collective was
started about a month ago by a 35-year-old former Santa Rosa bank
employee who was recovering from chemotherapy treatment for intestinal
cancer. Tom, who asked that only his first name be used, also is a
medical marijuana patient and said the collective has about 50 members.

The organization is aimed at serving those who truly are not mobile,
he said. "I can tell you how important it is to have a delivery
service for somebody that is sick," he said. "I found that out."

Northstone Organics has a 48-hour turnaround time, deliveries are kept
to under an ounce and only credit-card or money-order payments are
accepted, he said.

Santa Rosa officials said such deliveries are considered illegal
because only city-permitted dispensaries are allowed to sell medical
marijuana, and dispensaries are not allowed to deliver.

"We don't have any individual delivery services because then they
would not be in compliance with the ordinance limiting medical
cannabis sales to dispensary operators," said Santa Rosa city planner
Noah Housh.

Litchfield, the Santa Rosa narcotics officer, said that from a law
enforcement perspective, the only thing that's legal is "possession
for a medical reason."

"That's fine," he said. "What's in complete dispute now is how
patients get it. That's the area of complete confusion."

For now, delivery services are taking advantage of that confusion. But
most distributors say the service is not lucrative.

"I would much rather own a successful pizza delivery service than a
medical marijuana delivery service," said Clark.