SMOKED OUT

The first thing to know about medical marijuana clinic closures is:
You do not talk about medical marijuana clinic closures.

Not if you manned the front desk at any clinic that found itself on
the 437-strong list of clinics ordered to close by June 7. The most
any of the patients knew at the outset was that something, so to
speak, was on the wind.

Janet Cronin, co-owner of the 420 Highway Pharmacy, a dispensary in
a second-floor unit nestled in a nondescript office complex in
Gardena, was cautiously optimistic earlier this spring that she
would be allowed to remain open.

"We're not supposed to be on that list" for closure, says Cronin,
who suffers from complex regional pain syndrome, a neurological
malady that left her wheelchair-bound until her treatment via
medical marijuana.

She says the clinic filed its papers correctly and on time, and also
works with the surrounding community - neighbors, patients, police -
to make sure any concerns are addressed. "We report crime to the
police when it happens near the clinic," she says. "We try to
interact as closely with them as possible."

But Cronin's mood changes as the weeks pass. With the June 7 closure
drawing near, she sounds guarded and increasingly frustrated,
reluctant to discuss the closure beyond assertions that appeals are
being filed.

"We're just trying to do our best to obey the law," Cronin sighs
beyond the reception desk's bulletproof glass, as the scent of
modern medicine wafts through the waiting room and out the clinic
door, which opens to the trickle of patients entering on this warm
springtime afternoon. "We pay our taxes. We're just not looking for
the publicity. We're closing out of respect to the law, even though
we're on the list by mistake."

You wonder what segment of the community objected to 420's presence.
Gardena High School sits north of the clinic on Normandie Avenue,
well more than 1,000 feet away. Nearer that lies a cemetery.

Lest you labor under the delusion that the clinic is a den of addled
addicts melting into obscene and relaxed poses: People enter,
briefly fill their prescriptions, then exit. It's a business like
any other. It fits in well with the factory fringes that skirt it
and the Wal-Mart Pharmacy up the road, as the 405 and 110 freeways
feed traffic ceaselessly up and down Normandie.

The news spread quickly online when the City Attorney's Office
mailed closure notices to clinics on May 5, threatening misdemeanor
charges, arrest and daily fines for noncompliance.

Telephone calls to clinics initially found many operators who
claimed they were not meant to be on the list - that it was all a mistake.

Yet one by one, they closed.

The remaining clinics - roughly 130 - now operate under guidelines
from by the Citywide Nuisance Abatement Program (CNAP). The program
was established ostensibly to stem "narcotics and vice nuisance
activity at occupied residential and commercial locations." Those
guidelines involve staying 1,000 feet from schools and public-gathering sites.

Why had so many clinics been allowed to open over the last three
years despite a city moratorium? Clinics were supposedly banned if
they had not filed paperwork by Nov. 13, 2007, to allow them to set
up shop. But hundreds of owners got around the ban by filing for a
hardship exemption, allowing them to open without filing
business-tax registration certificates, state seller's permits or
proof of insurance.

District 14 Councilman Jose Huizar's motion last April helped to
remove the hardship-exemption loophole; his district covers Boyle
Heights, Glassell Park and Eagle Rock, allegedly one of the biggest
hubs of illegal clinic activity.

In an e-mail exchange, Frank Mateljan, the public information
officer for the City Attorney's Office, was asked if it is possible
that some clinics were ordered to close even though they had done
everything to the letter of the law.

"We made every effort to not include those establishments that are
excluded under the ordinance," he explained.

Regarding 420 Highway Pharmacy and other clinics that tried to be
sensitive to the concerns of their neighboring community, Mateljan
says he isn't aware of any clinic allowed to stay open simply
because it had engaged with its neighbors and police. The 420
Highway Pharmacy doused its neon green cross for the last time this week.

So what were the biggest community complaints about the clinics?

Proximity to schools and public-gatjeromg sites and "different types
of crime - burglaries, robberies and shootings at the sites
themselves and nuisance activity, such as smoking marijuana,
marijuana sales and excessive traffic around the sites," Mateljan says.

The ultimate beneficiaries of the closures are the clinics not on
the list. They now enjoy a playing field tilted by the departure of
least 75 percent of their competitors.

Mateljan wrote that the City Attorney's Office doesn't expect to see
a correlative uptick in similar crimes near those officially
sanctioned pot clinics, noting that those clinics are abiding by the
CNAP guidelines. "We expect the sites to be 1,000 feet from
sensitive uses and not abutting residential property."

Many clinics on the closure list were operating within those CNAP
guidelines, however. But since they hadn't filed their paperwork on
time back in 2007, the city regarded them as nuisances.

In the eyes of the City Attorney's Office - to paraphrase Animal
Farm - some nuisances are simply more equal than others.