SAN MARCOS TO CONSIDER BAN ON MEDICAL POT VENDORS

SAN MARCOS - The City Council will consider Tuesday outlawing the
distribution of medical marijuana in San Marcos, which would make it
the first city in San Diego County to enact such a ban.

City officials said they proposed the law after discovering last year
a business selling medical marijuana off Rancho Santa Fe Road.

The Legal Ease Inc. dispensary, across from Alvin Dunn Elementary
School, is the only medical marijuana distribution center in North
County, and city officials said they were concerned it violated
federal law and created health and safety problems for the surrounding
community.

"Our recommendation is to just say no to medical marijuana
dispensaries," said Helen Holmes Peak, city attorney. "The position we
believe is most consistent with both state and federal law is that
dispensaries of this type be prohibited."

Officials with Legal Ease, which has three offices in San Diego
County, said their business is legal and should be allowed.

"Legal Ease provides a necessary and essential service to the
community and intends to defend the rights of legitimate patients, and
its right to provide services to those individuals," said the
company's attorney, Henry Friesen in a written statement. "Legal Ease
desires to cooperate with local officials and encourages the City of
San Marcos to uphold the law."

Kevin Keenan, executive director of the San Diego County American
Civil Liberties Union, also urged the City Council to look at properly
regulating the dispensary and not just banning such businesses.

"In other places, these facilities have been shown to run smoothly and
not impose dangers to the community," Keenan said. "The ACLU is going
to represent the rights of seriously ill people who need this medical
option."

California voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act,
in 1996. The act acknowledges a potential medical benefit of marijuana
and allows people to grow and use marijuana if they have a doctor's
recommendation.

But the Controlled Substances Act passed by Congress in 1970 made it
illegal to manufacture, distribute, posses or use marijuana in the
United States because marijuana has a high potential for abuse and no
accepted use for medical treatment, according to the city report.

"The disconnect between federal and state law puts the city in an
awkward position," Peak said. "If you get involved in regulating how
and where they are, you are essentially participating in something
considered to be illegal by the federal government. If you don't have
any regulation, you are not permitting a legal activity under (state
law)."

Peak and city staff decided to recommend not allowing any sort of
business distributing marijuana in San Marcos, but advised the council
that it could also take no action or establish standards for medical
marijuana dispensaries.

If the council decides to ban the businesses, it could lead marijuana
advocates to take action against the city, Peak said.

"The likelihood of the city being sued is pretty high," Peak said.
"But I feel comfortable if the city enacts the ban, we would be able
to defend the city's position."

Peak said the cities of Pasadena, Concord, Temecula, Roseville,
Susanville and Rocklin have all passed similar laws, and most of them
are facing lawsuits.

The county of San Diego in January filed a lawsuit challenging the
state's medical marijuana law.

The lawsuit has attracted strong opposition from advocates of medical
marijuana use, and several such supporters voiced similar concerns
about San Marcos' proposed law.

Vista resident Craig McClain uses marijuana to ease pain and spasms
after his spine was crushed by falling steel girders in a construction
accident in 1990.

"I think this is politics and unfortunately people who are sick and
ill are caught in the middle," McClain said. "It's terrible they would
close the dispensary in San Marcos."

The dispensary in San Marcos was raided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency in December along with 12 other dispensaries in the city of San
Diego after undercover agents bought marijuana without
prescriptions.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department assisted in the raids, said
Sgt. Gary Floyd, in charge of a narcotics unit in San Marcos.

Floyd said there have been no complaints about the dispensary, which
does have a city business license, but officials found out there was
an unreported robbery at the facility over Thanksgiving weekend.

Armed robberies and drug dealers have been associated with similar
facilities throughout the state, Floyd said.

He said inside the unmarked business, tucked in a strip mail on the
east side of Rancho Santa Fe Road, are a variety of types of
marijuana. He said there were "marijuana brownies" and candies laced
with marijuana such as "Munchy Way" and "Stoney Rancher."

"I see the need for medical marijuana for people who are truly
suffering, but I think the way it's set up is ripe for abuse," Floyd
said.

The City Council will consider the proposed law Tuesday. Before any
law is passed, another public hearing would have to be held. A law
would not go into effect until 30 days after the second hearing.