HESPERIA HOME TO A DOZEN OR SO MARIJUANA COLLECTIVES AND DISPENSARIES

City Fights Unlicensed Outlets Through Fines

There are perhaps a dozen medical marijuana dispensaries and
cooperatives in Hesperia, and there's little that the city can do about it.

"That's an unofficial number, because none of them are legal," said
Dave Reno, the principal planner for the City of Hesperia. "We're
guessing there's at least 11, if not more."

According to WeedMaps.com, there 13 dispensaries operating in the
92345 ZIP code, including a delivery service.

And that's in defiance of an ordinance banning marijuana dispensaries
passed by the Hesperia City Council back in 2005.

"There were no issues with them at that time, but we'd heard other
cities had been having issues ... break-ins, drug dealing,
recreational uses, and so on," Reno said.

Although the sale of marijuana is illegal under federal law,
Californians approved Proposition 215 in 1996, which allowed patients
with a doctor's recommendation to possess, use and cultivate marijuana
for medical purposes. As a result, Hesperia's cooperatives and
dispensaries are in a legal gray area.

"We are busy prosecuting them," said Reno, "Basically fining them, and
that's really the extent of it, at this point. And that will go on
unless the city council votes to change things."

Fines are assessed on a daily basis and can get up to $500 a day, he
said.

One local group of marijuana advocates is hoping to operate with the
full approval of the city, though.

"Long about last August, medical marijuana advocates and their
patients started showing up at city council meetings and asked for
safe access to marijuana."

West Coast Patients Group filed an amendment to the city code in
January of this year.

"We took their code amendment to the planning commission in April,"
said Reno.

The amendment has bounced between the staff and commission several
times. City staff is scheduled to bring the latest revision to the
planning commission at their Sept. 8 meeting. If the planning
commission is done with the issue after that meeting, the ordinance
could be placed before the city council in October or November.

The revised ordinance incorporates the state's 2008 guidelines on
dispensaries and collectives, including dictating the dispensaries
cannot be on main thoroughfares in the city and mandating a minimum
distance from "sensitive" sites like parks and schools.

"There's no guarantee that the council would vote for this," however,
even if the planning commission ended up approving the proposed
amendment, Reno said.

Residents could take the matter out of the hands of politicians,
though, if enough of them wanted to.

"Citizens could put a measure on the ballot and vote to impose an
additional tax, but that would take an election," Reno said. "There
are wide-ranging opinions as to the amount of revenue that could be
generated from taxing them."

Despite repeated attempts, representatives of the West Coast Patients
Group could not be reached for comment on this story, but another
marijuana advocate thinks they may be on the right track.

"You ban them and moratorium them, and you get this whole Wild West
attitude," said Lanny Swerdlow, the head of the Inland Empire
Marijuana Anti-Prohibition Project. "You license them and regulate
them and you don't get this explosion of them all over the place."