MEDICAL POT ADVOCATES ASK COUNTY TO HELP

Medical marijuana advocates packed Tuesday night's meeting of the Kern
County Human Relations Commission to ask the county to intercede and
protect pot dispensaries.

Life's been tough since every medical marijuana dispensary in the
county closed after federal drug raids at one of the shops, advocates
told the commission. They now have to get their marijuana on the
street or grow it themselves, options they say put them in danger of
being ripped off or robbed.

Jim McGowen, a former dispensary owner, said marijuana is effective in
treating numerous ailments. Everything from anxiety to joint pain can
be helped by marijuana, he said.

Marijuana users, or patients, as McGowen called them, shouldn't be
targeted by law enforcement.

"People don't use cannabis and do stupid stuff," McGowen said. "They
might laugh a lot, but they don't hurt anyone."

While the sale of medical marijuana is legal under state law to people
with a doctor's recommendation, federal law says the dispensaries,
also called pot shops, are illegal and can be busted at any time.

Kern County supervisors voted in August to leave county ordinances
exactly as they are regarding medical marijuana. The county has an
ordinance allowing six dispensaries, but those shops closed after
federal drug raids.

Dispensary owners and customers have said the county is not providing
them with the protection they're entitled to under state law.
Supervisors and local lawmen, however, have said they're powerless to
protect dispensary owners from drug raids and arrests.

Sheriff Donny Youngblood stopped issuing licenses for dispensaries in
July, saying he couldn't issue them and then later help Drug
Enforcement Administration agents arrest dispensary owners.

Former dispensary employee John Wayne Wyatt said the county and
Youngblood should be held accountable for issuing the licenses and
then doing nothing to help those who were arrested for doing something
that is legal under state law. Wyatt faces a maximum penalty of 20
years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Doug McAfee, president of Bakersfield NORML, a pro-legalization group,
said the community is worse off since the shops closed down because
there are more dealers on the street and people are afraid.

When asked by commission president Gurujodha Singh Khalsa if he has
been negatively affected by the closure of the dispensaries, McAfee
pulled out a baggie containing a brownish substance that appeared to
be marijuana. He said it was poor quality pot, but it's the best he
can get ahold of since the shops closed.

"A simple yes or no would have sufficed," Khalsa said.

The commission will review the paperwork advocates provided and a
member will discuss the matter with Bakersfield Police Chief Bill
Rector and Youngblood. Then they will decide what the next step should
be, Khalsa said.

In other business, former California Highway Patrol Sgt. Alfredo Lopez
asked the commission to write a letter on his behalf to Attorney
General Edmund G. Brown Jr. Lopez said CHP discrimination forced him
out of his job and he wants it back, along with back pay.

Lopez is suing two retired heads of the CHP. Khalsa said the
commission would look into the matter, but he was not sure they could
communicate with someone involved in an ongoing lawsuit.