SUPES APPROVE $11K YEARLY POT SHOP FEE

Medical Pot Advocates Say Access Blocked

In moves that some said further undercut California's medical
marijuana law, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously
approved an $11,000 annual fee on Tuesday to operate medical pot
shops in the county's unincorporated areas, and further restricted
where the shops can open.

Supervisors Ron Roberts and Greg Cox said the fee, which would pay
for the Sheriff's Department services, appeared "high."

In fact, it's the highest annual fee charged to any Sheriff's
Department-regulated business in the county.

By comparison, the department charges $637 to start up a backcountry
strip club, $684 to establish a bathhouse on rural land and $398 to
open a massage parlor. A sheriff's official said the less expensive
fees haven't been updated for several years.

Still, the board approved the medical pot shop fee after a brief
presentation from county staff and emotional pleas from advocates for
and against the new limits.

The board also eliminated potential sites for medical pot shops in
unincorporated areas that bordered a church, school, park or other
nonindustrial-zoned site just across city lines.

Eric Gibson, the county's planning chief, said that move reduces the
number of legal sites for medical pot shops in the unincorporated
county from an estimated 15-18 sites down to 12-15 sites.

Some said the county added to "a de facto ban" on the medical pot
shops, given that none of the legal sites is available for rent or sale.

"By eliminating that access, you're forcing the very needy to go to
the streets" to buy marijuana, said Vey Linville of Spring Valley,
carting his oxygen machine with him to the podium and noting that he
drinks cannabis to help him breathe.

"This is a health care issue," he added. "There are desperately sick
and handicapped people who need this medicine to survive."

Not everyone agreed.

Lane Triplett, a Bonsall interior designer, urged the board to ban
the shops outright, saying young people are getting the wrong message
about marijuana.

"Let's not make San Diego County a haven for marijuana," she said.

State voters in 1996 approved marijuana for medical use. Local
governments have struggled ever since to regulate the sale of the
drug and reconcile its illegal status under federal law.

The supervisors and county law enforcement have taken aggressive
measures to restrict the shops, illustrated by raids that shut down
14 dispensaries from San Marcos to San Diego in September 2009. Those
were based on allegations that the dispensaries illegally acted as
for-profit businesses, selling to individuals outside their
cooperatives as required by law.

Three convictions resulted from the raids.

County Counsel Tom Montgomery said banning the pot clubs, as Triplett
and others called for, would be "legally questionable." He added that
the county instead has focused on the tough restrictions.

During Tuesday's meeting, Assistant Sheriff Ed Prendergast told the
board that the $11,017 fee was necessary to cover his department's
cost to process dispensary applications, inspect the shops and
respond to complaints about them.

He said other jurisdictions such as San Francisco and Long Beach
charge pot shops even more, roughly $11,400 and $14,000,
respectively. He added that Los Angeles charges its dispensaries about $8,000.

"The county's fee is both reasonable and comparable to other
jurisdictions around the state," he told the board at its meeting in
downtown San Diego, as medical marijuana advocates and marijuana
opponents watched intently from the audience.

Blanca Pelowitz, the sheriff's licensing manager, said fees charged
for sheriff's services at other businesses haven't been updated since
2006. At that time, she said, the fees were increased only somewhat
to avoid passing on a huge increase all at once.

Pelowitz said she could not immediately provide the recent study the
county used to arrive at the $11,000 fee.

She added, however, that the sheriff's inspection duties at medical
marijuana dispensaries are more involved than at massage parlors and
other similar businesses. She said deputies may be required to
inspect plants and the detailed records of all members of a specific
dispensary, to name a few duties.

"It's a lot more than (what) is done at the others," she said.

Find more about sheriff's fees at www.sdsheriff.net/licensing/fees.html.

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Fees charged by San Diego County Sheriff's Department to start a business

$11,017, medical marijuana shop

$684, bathhouse

$637, adult entertainment establishment

$479, explosives permit

$398, massage establishment

$398, pawnbroker

$379, firearms dealer permit

$251, fortune telling license

- -- Source: San Diego County Sheriff's Department