CANNABIS CLUB MAY BE OPENING ITS DOORS LOCALLY

Dispensary Planned For Hacienda Heights

HACIENDA HEIGHTS -- A young couple waits on a couch in a sunlit room
adorned with colorful tapestries.

Neither touches the magazines spread across the coffee table a copy of
"Food and Wine' and some pamphlets on cancer and glaucoma.

A security guard posted at the entrance nods at an elderly man limping out
the door with a paper bag in hand, and stops a middle-aged woman walking in.

"Can I see your ID?' he asks.

It's a typical day at this medical marijuana dispensary in West Hollywood,
a city where patients suffering from chronic illnesses can buy cannabis
sativa at some seven or eight dispensaries, also called cannabis clubs or
collectives.

But it's a scene that might soon unfold closer to home for Hacienda Heights
residents. California Medical Caregivers Association has plans to open a
medical cannabis dispensary in the unincorporated community, on Halliburton
Road near Hacienda Boulevard.

It would be the first cannabis dispensary in the San Gabriel Valley,
according to a list compiled by the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws.

The dispensary is still in the planning stage, and there isn't a firm date
for its opening, said Don Duncan, who directs a dispensary in West
Hollywood and is organizing the Hacienda Heights facility.

There is a great need for a dispensary in the area to serve patients living
in this part of the county, Duncan said.

"This area is entirely underserved,' he said. "People living in eastern
L.A. County have to drive to West Hollywood (to get their medication). This
is a little closer to home,' said Duncan, who declined to discuss specifics
of the proposed dispensary.

People regularly drive from as far as Palm Springs and San Diego to buy
cannabis in West Hollywood, where dispensaries have sprouted since
California voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996, decriminalizing the
personal possession of marijuana for medical use.

Hacienda Heights residents have mixed feelings.

Jose Vargas said he doesn't mind the dispensary as long as it is regulated
by the county.

"There's this feeling that this kind of service will bring in 'unwanted
people,'' said Vargas, who has lived in Hacienda Heights for 50 years. "I
don't feel that way. I think they're going through a proper process. And if
people need a service, they should have access to it.'

But others fear the drugs will find their way into the wrong hands.

Hacienda Heights resident Lucy Pedregon wonders why the dispensary has to
be located in her community.

"I'm not happy with it. I know we need these types of facilities, but the
location of the facility is what disturbs me. Why our community? Why put
one near the schools, where kids pass by?' she said, adding that the city
of Industry might be a better location.

The considered dispensary site is in what many consider the center of
Hacienda Heights, less than one mile from the Hacienda Heights library,
Kwis Elementary School, Manzanita Park, Newton Middle School and Steinmetz
Park.

California law protects a patient from being prosecuted if a doctor has
recommended the person's health would benefit from using marijuana to treat
AIDS, anorexia, arthritis, cancer, chronic pain, glaucoma, migraines and
other illnesses.

But the state law is at odds with federal law prohibiting the drug. A U.S.
Supreme Court ruling on the discrepancy is pending.

Complicating matters, California law lacks specific guidelines for
distributing the drug to patients.

Some patients get it from the black market, using doctor's notes as
safeguards in case they are prosecuted. Others grow it themselves, and
others turn to cannabis clubs or dispensaries, which are not regulated by
the state, according to Kris Hermes, legal campaign director for Americans
for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group.

"It has become a very localized oversight (of dispensaries),' Hermes said,
adding that more than a dozen cities and counties in California have
adopted ordinances that allow dispensaries but limit their number and
proximity to schools, youth centers or parks.

Other cities have banned cannabis clubs outright - at least until they
figure out how to regulate them.

Ontario, Temecula and West Hollywood recently extended moratoriums on
marijuana dispensaries.

Pasadena is waiting for the Supreme Court's decision before considering a
ban on the dispensaries. City officials looked at a report put together by
the police chief of Rocklin, a Northern Californian town that banned
marijuana dispensaries last year. The report cited complaints of drug
dealing, loitering and smoking of marijuana outside existing dispensaries
in the cities of Hayward, Oakland and Roseville.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services does not regulate or
oversee marijuana dispensaries, said Anna Long, chief of staff of Public
Health, although it may issue identification cards to patients who qualify
to use the drug, pending the Supreme Court's decision.

County officials are looking at whether the Hacienda Heights dispensary
will meet local zoning laws, said Rick Velasquez, assistant chief deputy
for Supervisor Don Knabe.

And the county Sheriff's Department is currently taking a hands-off
approach to policing marijuana dispensaries until the Supreme Court ruling.

"Right now, it's 'wait and see,' ' said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore,
adding the legality of the dispensaries is hazy right now. "The feds say
it's against the law. The state says it's not against the law.'

Deputies are not taking action inside dispensaries, he said, "but if
something spills outside that warrants law enforcement, we will certainly
do our job.'