BAN ON ILLEGAL MARIJUANA PROVIDERS MUST BE ENFORCED

Riverside County supervisors are right to shut down all illegal
medical marijuana dispensaries in the unincorporated areas.

The Board of Supervisors outlawed dispensaries in 2006, as has every
city in the county except Palm Springs.

However, county officials estimate there are now at least 36 illegal
pot dispensaries, not counting the ones in cities. There's a cluster
of 11 of them in, of all places, unincorporated Thousand Palms, which
has less than 8,000 residents.

Even Palm Springs, which allows up to three dispensaries or
collectives to operate legally, has 10 of them and home-delivery services.

Supervisors voted unanimously to authorize the county's attorneys to
sue any pot shops in the unincorporated area and the property owners
who allow them to operate.

Many elected leaders are concerned that even though California voters
approved medical marijuana 15 years ago, marijuana itself is still
regarded by the federal government as a Schedule I drug, right up
there with heroin, LSD and Ecstasy. That's why it can't be distributed
at pharmacies, which are controlled by the Federal Drug
Administration.

Some believe the dispensaries attract a criminal element. Cities and
counties should have a right to ban them. That was upheld by an
Appellate Court decision last month in a case involving the city of
Riverside and Lanny Swerdlow, a Whitewater resident and outspoken
proponent of medical marijuana.

Supervisors said they were "buoyed" by that decision to approve the
crackdown.

The Desert Sun supports the use of medical marijuana for people in
pain. It is a compassionate act by California and 14 other states.

But it must be tightly controlled, not a loose network for random
residents to get high.

A ban that is not enforced is meaningless.