DRUG AGENTS SHUTTER MEDICAL POT DISPENSARIES

San Mateo County DA Calls in Feds After Group Contests Desist Order

REDWOOD CITY -- Soon after the Patients Choice Resource Cooperative
moved into its new digs in downtown San Mateo, the group received a
cease-and-desist letter from the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.

Patients Choice is a medical marijuana dispensary, one of dozens in
the Bay Area providing medicine for patients in possession of
doctors' letters prescribing the drug.

But the cooperative was not complying with state and federal law,
according to the November 2006 letter, and it was told to close.

On Wednesday afternoon, DEA agents and local law enforcement stormed
the tiny storefront office and two other medical marijuana
dispensaries in the city's downtown and closed them.

The operation, led by the DEA, was the largest Bay Area raid on
medical marijuana dispensaries in nearly a year.

Before the raids, the district attorney's office was holding out hope
that Patients Choice "would recognize what they were doing as not in
compliance with California law, and they would shut down," said San
Mateo County District Attorney Jim Fox.

Instead, Patients Choice asked its attorney to send the district
attorney's office a letter saying that its business was perfectly in
compliance with state law in accordance with Proposition 215, the
1996 ballot measure that state voters approved to allow use of
medical marijuana; SB420, a bill passed by the state Legislature in
2004 that allows medical marijuana patients to form their own
cooperatives; and People v. Urziceanu, a 2005 appellate court ruling
that found that SB420 allows consumer cooperatives, such as Patients
Choice, to accept money in exchange for medicine.

Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe considered the letter,
reflected on the state's ambiguous legal definition of medical
marijuana dispensaries, and made a decision.

"We could have sat here and spent a great deal of taxpayer money in
San Mateo County, prosecuting it and going through the appeals, or we
could bring the case to the attention of the federal government,"
Wagstaffe said.

When Matt Kumin, the San Francisco-based attorney for Patients Choice
and a consultant to some 80 medical marijuana dispensaries throughout
the state, learned that federal agents had raided his clients and two
additional dispensaries, his reaction was swift.

"The local DA tries to do a prosecution, but it's too difficult. He's
got a bitter taste in his mouth, so he calls the feds.

"To me, it's very cowardly," he added. "San Mateo -- God, what a
conservative place!"

Trial Program

Actually, until now San Mateo County had not been conservative when
it came to medical marijuana.

One year after 66 percent of voters passed Prop. 215, the Board of
Supervisors approved a trial program for the county hospital to treat
terminally ill patients with medical marijuana.

When the state began to issue cards for medical marijuana patients in
2004, the county was one of the first to begin registering qualified
residents, said John Conley, the county's public health director.

"The Board of Supervisors has been very supportive of medical
marijuana in general," Conley said.

Maybe that's why on Thursday Supervisor Jerry Hill questioned the
legitimacy of the raids on the three medical marijuana dispensaries,
provided that the businesses were "clearly providing the drug for
medical reasons."

Whether the dispensaries were operating within state medical
marijuana laws is anyone's guess.

A DEA spokesperson would not comment on the issue and said the agency
only concerns itself with federal drug laws. The county's Narcotics
Task Force and the San Mateo Police Department, which assisted in the
raid after cooperating with a nine-month investigation of the
dispensaries, refused to comment on the issue, explaining that the
search warrants and other documents related to the case were sealed.

When asked to comment on the case, county Sheriff Greg Munks referred
questions to the DEA. Susan Manheimer, San Mateo's chief of police,
did not return numerous phone calls seeking an interview.

The raids turned up 50 pounds of processed marijuana, hashish,
cannabis-laced edibles and about $30,000 in cash, according to a
statement released by the DEA. No arrests were reported, nor were
there reports that the dispensaries were doing anything not permitted
by the state's marijuana laws.

"The absence of a claim that these dispensaries are operating outside
of state law jumps out at me," said Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana
Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based medical marijuana advocacy group.

If the dispensaries were in compliance with state law, Mirken wonders
"why on Earth are the San Mateo police involved in a conspiracy to
undermine state law? That is truly outrageous."

The answer, said San Mateo police Lt. Mike Brunicardi on Thursday, is
that the police department has "an obligation to the residents of San
Mateo" to assist federal agents if they report illegal operations
within the city.

But Mirkin contends that a collaboration with federal agents "who
believe that the most ethical and humane medical marijuana provider
is no different than a common drug dealer" is a bad decision for the community.

The right decision, he said, would be for cities like San Mateo and
county government to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries "for the
good of the patients and the good of the community."

Mayor 'Thrilled' By Raids

That sort of progressive thinking stumps some local officials and
angers others. While nearly all of the county's supervisors have gone
on record defending the use of medical marijuana, the board has yet
to enact any ordinances to regulate dispensaries.

San Mateo Mayor John Lee said of the raids: "I'm just thrilled to
death they did it. We don't need that kind of stuff in our city."

Those two attitudes -- passive support and outright disdain -- have
directed public policy regarding medical marijuana in the state.

According to Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland-based medical
marijuana advocacy group, 26 cities and eight counties in California
have ordinances allowing and regulating dispensaries. An additional
55 cities and two counties have enacted bans (which advocates
maintain are illegal), and 75 cities and six counties have imposed
temporary moratoriums.

The remainder of the state's 478 incorporated cities and 58 counties,
like the city of San Mateo and San Mateo County, have yet to
specifically address the issue.

Supervisor Rich Gordon said, "I think that in California we have to
find a way to resolve how the distribution of medical marijuana can
be achieved in a way that doesn't bring the suspicion and allegation
of law enforcement that illegal activities are occurring. We need to
find a way for people who need access to this medication to get it."

Asked whether local officials should take up the mantle of
regulation, Gordon replied, "I'm not sure that's the way to go." The
complications of creating ordinances for 20 cities and the county
would prove too difficult, he said.

Supervisor Hill agrees, saying that "the state should regulate,
rather than the county."

The legal morass of medical marijuana in the county is a "tragedy,"
Hill said, because the health benefits of medicinal marijuana are
proved -- and "there should be available places to obtain medical marijuana."

There are currently 880 medical marijuana patients who have been
issued state identification cards through the county's health
department and potentially hundreds more who have obtained an
authorized medical marijuana prescription from a physician to treat
any number of ailments from attention-deficit disorder to arthritis
to terminal illnesses, such as cancer and HIV.

Now that the county's three primary medical marijuana dispensaries
have been shut down, patients must go elsewhere.

"Those who can will drive to San Francisco or Oakland or wherever
there are dispensaries," said Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project.
"But there will be lots of people who can't do that. And those
patients will either do without their medicine that their doctor
recommended or buy it from drug dealers on the streets.

"How on Earth is either of those outcomes beneficial to the
community?" he asked.

Asked how the shuttering of the county's medical marijuana
dispensaries would affect patients, local officials and law
enforcement officers either declined comment or suggested that
individuals would just have to travel elsewhere to fill their prescription.

One military veteran living in Redwood City is one of the hundreds --
potentially thousands -- of county residents who will be affected by the raids.

Mike wishes to remain anonymous because, under state law, his
prescription allows him to grow a handful of marijuana plants to
treat his chronic rheumatoid arthritis. He's afraid the federal
government will take away the medication which makes his life bearable.

He has smoked marijuana for decades. In 1969 his doctor at Kaiser
Permanante recommended the drug as a tool to treat his condition. But
the medical marijuana laws limit the amount he grows, and he has been
forced to supplement his supply from medical marijuana dispensaries.
Now he doesn't know what he'll do.

"I don't want to drive all over the Bay Area looking for it," he
said. "I would rather not have to go through that. I want to be able
to know where I can get this stuff when I need it from a safe place
- -- and as convenient as possible would be nice."

Asked whether the county -- which officially supports medical
marijuana but whose law enforcement agencies continue to oppose the
medication -- has supported medical marijuana users, his reply was succinct.

"What has the county done for me?" he said. "In my opinion, the
county has done nothing."

MediaNews Sacramento Bureau reporter Harrison Sheppard contributed to
this story.