RIVERSIDE COUNTY OKS ACTION AGAINST MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES IN
UNINCORPORATED AREAS

Already facing a potential crackdown by federal authorities, some
Coachella Valley medical marijuana dispensaries must now contend with
a new, local push to shut them down.

During its closed session meeting Tuesday, the Riverside County Board
of Supervisors authorized its attorneys to sue any pot shops in
unincorporated areas - plus any property owners who allow them to
operate - unless those dispensaries immediately close.

Riverside County has prohibited medical marijuana dispensaries from
operating on unincorporated land since 2006.

Last year, county supervisors briefly considered an ordinance that
would have regulated these dispensaries but later stepped back and
decided to uphold the ban.

Nonetheless, dozens of storefronts have sprouted in the
unincorporated county in recent years, including a cluster of at
least 11 dispensaries presently open in Thousand Palms, according to
online dispensary locator WeedMaps.com.

County officials estimated as many as 47 in unincorporated areas last
year, and they know of at least 36 such dispensaries.

Part of what has led to the county's medical marijuana boom are
"vaguely written laws" on the state level, according to an October
2010 letter from County Counsel Pamela J. Walls to The Desert Sun.

Several owners of dispensaries who would be affected by the county's
latest plan were unavailable or declined to comment late Tuesday.

Local patients and proponents of medical pot have endured several
setbacks in the past few months.

The supervisors' unanimous vote Tuesday, according to a news release,
was "buoyed" by last month's state appellate court ruling, which
upheld the city of Riverside's ban on dispensaries.

That ruling followed an October announcement by the state's four
federal prosecutors of a broad effort to close pot clubs, in
particular, by sending landlords who rent space to pot dispensaries
letters threatening to seize their property under federal drug
trafficking laws.

The county's ban only applies to unincorporated areas, and Tuesday's
action does not appear to affect Palm Springs - the only city in
Riverside County to allow a limited number of dispensaries.

Outside of Thousand Palms, Palm Springs has the largest cluster of
medicinal marijuana dispensaries, with at least 10 brick-and-mortar
locations and a half-dozen delivery services listed on the WeedMaps website.

However, most of those locations are illegal under the city's
ordinance regulating medical cannabis.

Palm Springs allows only up to three locations within its borders.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.