COURT DECIDES FATE OF POT CLUB

County Seeks Two-Year Ban

The first medical marijuana dispensary in the San Gabriel Valley will
go head to head with the county today when a judge decides whether it
can dispense the drug to legitimate patients.

The county, which already won a three-week restraining order
prohibiting the California Medical Caregivers Association from
distributing marijuana but not from registering patients, will seek
an injunction of up to two years to halt its operations.

Dispensary operators Don Duncan and David Nam had hoped to open the
facility at 15838 Halliburton Road in Hacienda Heights because there
is little access to the drug for sick people living in eastern Los
Angeles County, they said.

But when county officials learned of their intentions to open in
early May, they moved quickly to block it, passing an emergency
moratorium on dispensaries in unincorporated county areas.

CMCA operators are expected to try to show they opened before the
moratorium passed May 31, making them exempt. The county says
inspectors who visited the site found no business sign or any activity.

"It's a unique situation,' said Rebecca Saltzman, executive assistant
for Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group.
Usually, people looking to open a dispensary approach the city before
beginning preparations to open; the city often quickly passes a
moratorium before they have a chance to open. There are 48 cities and
counties with moratoriums, according to ASA.

But it is hard to prove when a dispensary is open, because they do
not operate like normal businesses, she said.

In order to protect themselves from federal prosecution, they
generally don't keep sales receipts, although state law allows "just
compensation' for dispensary operators, she said. They often don't
advertise with signs and operate by appointment only.

Three pot clubs in San Francisco have been raided by the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration since the Supreme Court ruled June 6
against medical marijuana users Angel Raich and Diane Monson.

The city of San Francisco is now tightening regulations on its some
40 pot clubs, many of which operate without the proper zoning
permits, Saltzman said.

The county's moratorium on dispensaries expires in about two weeks,
and county supervisors are "very likely' to vote to extend it for up
to two years on July 12, said David Sommers, spokesman for Supervisor
Don Knabe.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which patrols
Hacienda Heights, has kept an eye outside of the facility to make
sure no business is conducted, which would violate the restraining
order, said Deputy Brian Sanford.