CANNABIS CLUBS CLOSE THEIR DOORS

A Ukiah cannabis club with a branch in LA and some 20,000 customers
has closed its doors after it said it got a warning that federal drug
agents may be coming to close it down.

Scott Feil, who runs the United Medical Caregiver Clinic on North
State Street, said Thursday that he believed the DEA would come to
Ukiah to shut them down.

A second cannabis club on North State Street -- Compassionate
Caregivers of Ukiah -- appeared to have shut down as well.

The buzz among marijuana dispensaries at the moment is that the
federal Drug Enforcement Agency is linking up with the Internal
Revenue Service to go after cannabis clubs. The LA branch of the UMCC
voluntarily closed down Tuesday.

"The main decision to close (in Ukiah) was made because I have no
defense," Feil said. "The defense was taken away. California voters'
rights were taken away."

Feil refers to Monday's U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave federal
drug agents authority to continue to prosecute medical marijuana
growers, patients and caregivers despite Prop. 215, the California
law that legalized medical marijuana use and cultivation.

According to Feil, the closest place for medical marijuana patients
to buy marijuana now is in Oakland, and he predicted the Supreme
Court decision would simply "drive people to the black market."

Theresa Schilling at state Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office
said Thursday that while under state law medical marijuana remains
legal, "the sad reality is, there is a risk."

Feil said he'd been told the DEA was in Ukiah Thursday, but Sheriff
Tony Craver said Thursday he'd not heard of it. Craver said when the
Supreme Court decision came down, he "had a hunch the DEA may crack
down on the large scale dispensaries."

The medical marijuana dispensaries have become controversial in
Ukiah, where many residents and government authorities have come to
believe they are mostly serving recreational marijuana users through
marijuana prescriptions written by doctors who are ready to provide
them to anyone. They are said to reap hundreds of thousands of
dollars in the process upon which they pay no taxes and still charge
medical marijuana patients street prices for the pot they buy.

For those reasons, the city of Ukiah had passed an urgency ordinance
in May putting a moratorium on more cannabis clubs.

Meanwhile, the city is continuing to move forward on backyard medical
marijuana growing regulations.

The Ukiah Planning Commission on Wednesday night passed its version
of an ordinance that will now go to the Ukiah City Council for consideration.

The ordinance would limit medical marijuana growing to state
regulations which allow six mature and 12 immature plants at any
time. Of those, the Planning Commission limited outdoor growing to
two plants per patient or caregiver, but no more than four outdoor
plants at any household. Also, outdoor plants must be no taller than
6 feet and must be kept at least 15 feet from the fence line.

All other plants would have to be grown in a secure, enclosed space
either in the home itself or a shed, greenhouse or garage.

According to Planning Commissioner Judy Pruden, "A secure location is
not a gated fence." The indoor operations must have roofs, doors and locks.

According to Pruden, the new regulations make medical marijuana
growing in the city a "permitted use," which means that anyone who
wants to grow it at home must get a use permit from the city. To do
that, the patient or caregiver would have to show a medical marijuana
ID card (available with a doctor's recommendation from the county
health department by appointment) to city staff.

Also, any greenhouses or sheds that patients or caregivers want to
build that would be bigger than 126 square feet would also have to
conform to building codes and be permitted by the city.

Even though it was controversial, the commissioners also retained the
suggested provision that no medical marijuana growing be allowed
within 300 feet of schools, parks, rest homes, churches and recreation areas.

However, they allowed that any medical marijuana patients living in
those restricted zones could appeal to the planning staff directly
for an exemption.

Finally, the commission also recommends forming a five-member
citizens advisory board to help mediate neighbor complaints --
particularly odor complaints -- surrounding medical marijuana
growing. Pruden said she would like to see such a board formed under
the auspices of the county health department.

"It could be effective in mediating the nuisance factors," Pruden
said and lauded the medical marijuana proponents for the idea.

Included in that group were representatives of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Medical
Marijuana Patients Union, which Pruden said had written a very good
"declaration of policy," which the commission adopted as it own
introduction to the ordinance.

"It really set a positive note," she said.

The new growing ordinance will now go to the City Council, but Pruden
points out that the council is not likely to be able to take it up
before its meeting in the third week of July, and then even if it
passed it would not take effect for 30 days.

That means, if the city extends the urgency moratorium on outdoor
planting at its meeting next week, growers could lose what they
consider important outdoor growing time in this season.