MARIJUANA DISPENSARY CAUSES UPROAR IN UNINCORPORATED MONROVIA

MONROVIA - Buildings at a self-serve car wash and former diesel gas
station at Live Oak and Lynd avenues are now aptly painted a
not-so-subtle shade of green.

The owner of the corner lot in unincorporated Monrovia, developer
Leon San Blas, has grand plans for renovating the space. He wants to
get the diesel pumps working again, keep the car wash hoses flowing,
and maybe even open a small farmer's market.

But it's another component of his plan that's raised the ire of
nearby property owners: San Blas wants to turn a small building at
the back of his car wash into a medical marijuana dispensary.

The idea has not gone over well with his neighbors. When he presented
his proposal at a recent meeting of the Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte (MAD)
Town Council meeting that drew a crowd of more than 100 people, "it
was a lynch mob," San Blas said.

"We didn't have a nice, fair meeting," he said. "They look at me as a
drug lord."

If San Blas' bid is successful, his clinic would be the first in the
county's Fifth Supervisorial District - a milestone Daryl Dittebrand,
who lives across from San Blas' plot, would rather see not reached.

Dittebrand said he's already gone door-to-door delivering
anti-dispensary flyers to 1,000 local homes, he said.

"Everyone is up in arms," he said.

At that MAD meeting, "people were getting loud, people were on their
feet, people were shaking their fists," Dittebrand said.

He and other neighbors worry a medical marijuana dispensary would
make property values plummet. He also worries that a pot clinic will
attract a criminal element to a neighborhood already populated with a
liquor store and two bars.

"I'm scared," Dittebrand said. "I really am."

Chuck Hunt, who runs Bucklee's Custom Flooring across the street from
San Blas' property, shares Dittebrand's concerns.

"The people it's going to attract are not so much the people who are
sick fighting cancer but the other riffraff," Hunt said. "If they're
selling pot across the street, this is going to be a nightmare."

Last Thursday, two employees at two different marijuana dispensaries
in Los Angeles were gunned down during robberies.

Those killings prompted Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael
Antonovich to announce last week that he'll seek an ordinance to ban
marijuana dispensaries from unincorporated areas in the county.

Antonovich's aide, Tony Bell, said officials worry that
unincorporated county communities could become havens for marijuana
dispensaries as more and more cities ban them.

Monrovia, Arcadia, and Duarte have imposed bans on pot clinics. And,
Los Angeles this month effectively forced more than 400 dispensaries
to shut down.

Paul Novak, Antonovich's planning deputy, doesn't want shuttered L.A.
clinics relocating in unincorporated areas of the county.

"It pretty much points the operators in one direction," he said. "If
we're the only jurisdiction that hasn't banned them, we're going to
become a magnet for marijuana dispensary applications."

Novak said his office has been flooded with inquiries about San Blas'
proposed dispensary, with virtually all the residents who contacted
him expressing their opposition.

"This community is very, very engaged in opposing this proposal," Novak said.

San Blas said he understands his neighbors' concern but insisted that
the dispensary would be safe, pointing to security cameras he's
already installed above the self-serve car wash stalls.

He said he's trying to fill a need for people who need to use
marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"The reason we're trying to open, and a lot of people find it hard to
believe, is people like myself who are injured," said San Blas, who
is paralyzed from the waist down from a construction accident. "We're
not opening this to sell drugs. We're opening this to help our patients."

San Blas must still obtain a conditional use permit from the county
before he can open, which could take another few months. If approved,
his dispensary would not be subject to the ban Antonovich wants to impose.

San Blas is confident that he'll get the permit. And he's still
hopeful he can smooth things over with his neighbors.

"We're not here to make your life miserable," said San Blas. "You're
not even going to know we're here."