PETITION DRIVE CHALLENGES MEDICAL MARIJUANA BAN

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Kern County is not exactly the kind of place
where you would expect a voter rebellion, what with its conservative
rural residents, its live-off-the-land values and its almost
unshakable devotion to the Republican Party.

But over the last several months, Kern County -- located 60 miles
north of Los Angeles and as far as it can get from San Francisco --
has become the scene of a civil war of sorts over an issue, medical
marijuana, whose supporters are often of a more liberal stripe. At
stake is a controversial new law -- passed unanimously in August by
the county's all-Republican Board of Supervisors -- which would have
effectively shut many of the three dozen or so medical marijuana
dispensaries in the county.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the ban: a group of medical
marijuana advocates started a petition drive to challenge it, calling
for a referendum on the law, something that could happen as soon as
next year. In the meantime, the law is on hold.

And while such an effort is nearly unheard of in Kern -- perhaps the
first time in modern memory that anyone can recall a board-passed law
being so challenged -- it is not the only place in California, the
original medical marijuana state, where local regulation is meeting
opposition. Laws passed in several other counties and cities have
also been the subject of referendum movements, something permitted by
California state law.

In San Jose, for example, advocates for medical marijuana filed tens
of thousands of signatures on Friday to try to force a vote on a new
law that would have regulated dispensaries there, a development that
Mayor Chuck Reed said could cost his cash-strapped city -- facing a
$100 million deficit next year -- sorely needed finances to mount an election.

"It's definitely not a small number," Mr. Reed said. "But that's the
choice we'll have to make."

At the same time, some state officials in California are also
increasingly perplexed about mixed signs from the federal
authorities, who still view marijuana as illegal under federal law
despite legislation in more than a dozen states allowing the drug's
medical use. The strongest indication of recent federal disapproval
came in early October, when four United States attorneys in
California said they would crack down on dozens of dispensaries --
which sell marijuana to anyone with a doctor's recommendation --
saying that many are operating as large-scale drug-selling
operations, not medically minded collectives, as required by state law.

And while state officials here admit that the current model of
distribution is subject to manipulation by those simply wanting to
buy marijuana for recreational use, they argue that the federal
threats are endangering those who truly need it.

"If there are abuses we should deal with those, but this is not the
way to do it," said Tom Ammiano, a state assemblyman from San
Francisco, who called the federal threats thuggish. "I expect any day
now for a droid to come down on some poor dispensary in Fresno or
something and obliterate the people."

The two men at the heart of the battle over the Kern County ordinance
have similar backgrounds -- both with years of law enforcement
experience -- but with very different attitudes about California's
landmark medical marijuana law, Proposition 215, which was passed by
voters in 1996. On one side is Sheriff Donny Youngblood, a former
Army drill sergeant, who has made it very clear that he thinks the
way Proposition 215 is being used now is a "sham" that flies the face
of not only federal statutes, but also of common decency.

"It's not just a legal stand," Sheriff Youngblood said. "It's really
a moral stand."

On the other extreme is Robert Wade, a narcotics officer turned
entrepreneur, who says being laid off led him to open a medical
marijuana dispensary and clinic last year, an operation that now
brings him a six-figure salary in what he calls "one of the few
growing industries in this country."

"Five years ago, I was living the American dream," said Mr. Wade.
"Now, I'm living the American dream, just in a different avenue."

Mr. Wade is just one of several dispensary owners and supporters who
helped finance a movement to collect the 17,000 signatures --
sometimes at booths in front of Wal-Mart -- needed to put the new law
to a vote. Those petitions were turned in early September,
temporarily suspending the law's implementation. The county board is
now considering its next step, but a referendum could come as soon as
next spring.

And while the biggest block of Kern's 310,000 registered voters are
Republicans, national drug reformers say the vote here could be an
indication of what they feel is increasing bi-partisan support for
medical marijuana.

"For Kern, as a red county, to step up and say, 'Wait a minute,' I
think that would really resonate," said Ethan Nadelmann, the
executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which lobbies for
more liberal drug laws.

That said, it will not necessarily be an easy sell. Kern County's
right-leaning tendencies are well-documented and deeply felt,
including its pride over Representative Kevin McCarthy, a
fourth-generation county resident who serves as the House majority
whip. Even more tellingly, Kern County voters soundly rejected a 2010
measure to legalize recreational use of marijuana, with 65 percent of the vote.

Still, local supporters say that they are confident that Kern
residents are more independently minded than that some outsiders
expect. "The people here, they're pretty tough," said Gary Fly, a
former big rig driver who now runs two dispensaries in Kern County.
"They're not the pushover type of people. If they want to fight for
their rights, they will."

But Sheriff Youngblood says that the marijuana has been a destructive
force in his county, destroying public lands -- where growers often
plant -- and bringing into an otherwise largely peaceful rural
environment an influx of weapons as a result of what he says are
criminal cartels involved in the drug trade. He has conducted several
major raids this year, including one in September that netted more
than 2,100 plants near the town of Wasco.

He rejects the notion that somehow sick people are being denied
succor. "This marijuana issue is about money," he said, "not about medicine."

Mr. Wade says that he has, in fact, invested tens of thousands of
dollars in his business, a pair of handsomely appointed storefronts
just north of Bakersfield in Oildale, where several other
marijuana-related dispensaries and horticulture shops have helped add
some street-level commerce to an otherwise humdrum strip of suburbia.
Last week, Halloween decorations adorned Mr. Wade's consultation
center, as customers compared samples of marijuana mounted on a
magnetized board in the dispensary next door.

Mr. Wade -- who uses marijuana to treat his own anxiety -- said he
has been fielding a steady stream of questions from worried patients
about whether the local law will stand or the federal crackdown will
shut him down. He worries, too, he said, not only for his business
but for the nearly dozen workers he has hired in a county with
double-digit unemployment.

"There's people here who weren't working before who are working now
and are living in apartments and buying cars," he said. "Now they
have hope for the future."

Ian Lovett contributed reporting from Los Angeles, and Malia Wollan
from San Francisco.