MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS FEAR CLOSURE OF DISPENSARIES

Shortly after rising each day, Ramon Armendariz takes a few puffs of
marijuana from a glass pipe to ease pain from the herniated discs in his back.

Later, he sprays a concentrated solution made from the cannabis plant
on his aching back and on inflamed blisters brought on by the shingles virus.

The drug, he says, allows him to walk with the help of a cane and
relieves some of his physical misery from old sports injuries and
numerous car accidents. And marijuana leaves him more alert than
prescription medications like Percocet and OxyContin, he said.

"It levels out the pain so it's something in the background and not
something dominant," said Armendariz, 61, a former chef who has been
unable to work since 1990.

He is among the thousands of people who hold medical marijuana cards
under California's Prop. 215, approved by voters in 1996.

While the state allows it, many entities do not. Earlier this month,
Riverside County supervisors voted to take legal action against 36
dispensaries in unincorporated areas unless they shut down
voluntarily. Future action could include seizing property under anti-drug laws.

In the last week, county attorneys filed for an injunction to shut
down Platinum Collective in Home Gardens and issued a subpoena
ordering the operator of the Compassion and Wellness Center in
Lakeland Village and the property owner to appear before the board of
supervisors next month to explain why the business is still operating.

San Bernardino County and more than 250 California cities, including
Riverside, Jurupa Valley, San Jacinto, San Bernardino, Lake Elsinore,
Beaumont, Perris, Hesperia, Colton and Corona, have taken similar action.

Federal agencies also have been cracking down on dispensaries, saying
the law was not intended to support large-scale growing operations and stores.

The trend has patients like Armendariz worried.

Coachella, where he lives, has no dispensaries. Once a week he
hitches a ride with his wife or friends to the nearest dispensary,
about 12 miles away in Thousand Palms.

Once the county begins forcing closures, Armendariz said, he will
have to travel three times as far to the nearest legal dispensaries,
in Palm Springs, where they are allowed.

The inconvenience won't keep him from using the drug, and if the
shops are driven out of business, Armendariz said he will turn to
street dealers.

Questioning need

Medical marijuana advocates say the crackdowns will have a
devastating effect on patients who depend on cannabis to relieve
chronic pain, insomnia, migraines, fibromyalgia, loss of appetite,
nausea from chemotherapy and other health problems.

Prices will go up and, without legal access, patients likely will
turn to drug dealers for their supply, fueling organized crime, advocates said.

Under the Compassionate Use Act, patients with a medical marijuana
recommendation from a doctor are allowed to grow their own. But many
say they can't or won't.

"Some people are learning to grow their own, but that will be a
minority. Growing indoors takes skill, and outside, once the
neighborhood kids find you're growing marijuana, you can kiss it
goodbye," said activist Lanny Swerdlow, a registered nurse and board
member of a Riverside dispensary that has appealed its closure to the
California Supreme Court.

Growing pot at home would limit the variety available. Different
strains from Easy Rider to Mauwie Wauwie - help different ailments,
advocates say.

The crackdowns could fuel an increase in mobile delivery services
like those found on www.potmobile.com, they said. But it is only a
matter of time before they also become targets, said Abrahim Robbin,
27, a director at the Inland Valley Therapeutic Healing Centers in
Thousand Palms, which will close under the new county policy.

"The narcotics officers, police officers and sheriffs are going to be
busy, because the streets are going to be so badly infested with the
real drug trafficking. The Mexican mafia are the ones that will rise
up from this," he said.

The president of the California State Sheriff's Association, Mark
Pazin, disagreed, and said people without law enforcement experience
are quick to bring up drug cartels, which already exist and thrive.
Patients who genuinely need relief from serious and terminal ailments
such as cancer should use Marinol, an FDA-approved synthetic
marijuana pill, he said.

"Just because somebody had a bad day or got a boo-boo on their knee,
they get a medical marijuana card so they can smoke this junk," said
Pazin, the Merced County sheriff. "They are taking advantage of this."

Opponents who support a ban say dispensaries increase crime in
neighborhoods and set a bad example for children.

Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley called for a crackdown on
doctors who issue medical marijuana cards to those without a serious illness.

About 400 one-year medical marijuana cards were issued in Riverside
and San Bernardino counties for 2011-2012, according to the state
Department of Public Health.

Healthy young adults obtain medical marijuana recommendations so they
can buy the drug and resell it, said Paul Chabot, president of the
Coalition for a Drug-Free California and founder of the Inland Valley
Drug-Free Community Coalition.

Chabot experimented with marijuana and alcohol when he was 12, but
got clean during a 36-day residential treatment program, he said.
Chabot questioned the benefits of medical marijuana for many
conditions, such as glaucoma, and said those who need it can grow their own.

"This is not what California voters voted for. They thought they were
helping terminally ill people," said Chabot, 37, of Rancho Cucamonga.
"These pot stores are nothing more than domestic marijuana cartels."

'I benefit from it'

At the Inland Valley Patients' Health and Wellness Center in a
Riverside industrial center, people arrive in a steady stream for an
afternoon seminar on growing marijuana at home.

The 6,000-member dispensary is waiting to hear whether the state's
high court will hear its case against closure. In the meantime, the
Fourth District Court of Appeal has issued a stay on the city's
effort to oust the business.

Consultant and cultivator Ruben De Leon, 23, himself a medical
marijuana user, said the center strictly abides by requirements of
the Compassionate Use Act by having patients show their doctor
recommendation upon entering.

An armed security guard scans patients with a metal detector before
they are allowed into a back room where numerous strains of marijuana
buds, like Banana Frost and Grape Ape, are kept in jars. Coolers hold
$5 pot brownies and $8 apple cinnamon rolls.

Business at the dispensary could pick up once Riverside County
officials start closing stores in unincorporated areas, he said.

De Leon has been using marijuana since 2007 for pain from a car
accident that left him with two broken legs. Prescription pain
killers made him nauseous, constipated and zombie-like, he said.

De Leon pulls up his pants leg to show jagged scars from
reconstructive surgery on his right knee.

"I know I'm young, but looks can be deceiving. I have a legitimate
reason to use it and I benefit from it," he said.

Anne Watts, 61, of unincorporated Highgrove, borrows a car or takes
the bus to dispensaries in Riverside a couple of times a week for
anxiety disorders and a degenerative joint disease that affects her
back. She spends about $60 a week.

She gets almost immediate relief after smoking it through a water
pipe, starting first thing in the morning.

"When you wait 30 or 45 minutes for a pill to kick in, I've already
got the benefits by that time and I don't have to take an addictive
pill. Depending on the pain level, usually in the evening I'll be
hurting pretty bad and I medicate again," she said.

Watts, who has four grown children, said she isn't sure what she'll
do if the dispensaries close. She doesn't know enough about growing her own.

"I guess I'll have to go sit on the supervisors' front door," she said.