MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGAL IN CALIFORNIA, BUT FEDS STILL RAID DISPENSARIES

SACRAMENTO - More than a decade after California voters approved
legalized medical marijuana, an explosion of dispensaries and
patients has cities and counties scrambling to regulate the operations.

In Los Angeles - where the number of dispensaries soared from just a
handful to more than 200 in the past two years - stunned city
officials recently passed a moratorium on new clinics until they can
develop guidelines.

Hundreds of other cities up and down California have no regulations
at all on medical marijuana dispensaries, including at least 28 where
clinics or delivery services are operating, according to a Daily News analysis.

Law enforcement officials say a lack of local oversight could allow
dispensaries to open near schools or parks, with no way for
authorities to remedy the situation.

"I think they could easily be surprised," said Modesto Police Chief
Roy Wasden, who chairs a statewide task force on medical marijuana.
"They're not prepared for the issues that will surround dispensaries
opening up."

According to Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy
group, 26 cities and eight counties in California have ordinances
allowing and regulating dispensaries.

An Advertisement additional 55 cities and two counties have enacted
bans (which some 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
have yet to specifically address the issue.

Throughout California, there are at least 400 known medical marijuana
dispensaries - and likely hundreds more that are unpublicized.

About 15,000 Californians have registered for state medical-marijuana
identification cards. Because the cards are voluntary and not
required to obtain medical marijuana, officials cannot say with
certainty how many people actually are seeking the drug.

Pro-legalization groups estimate there are 150,000 to 200,000
medical-marijuana users in California - up from about 30,000 just
five years ago.

Law enforcement agencies remain concerned about the potential for
unregulated dispensaries, with their stashes of drugs and cash, to
attract crime to neighborhoods.

And some of the facilities, they say, are simply profit-making
enterprises that sell at stiff prices to healthy youths and the
seriously ill alike.

The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in crime
near some facilities and has received complaints about activities,
including one dispensary handing out fliers for free marijuana
samples to students at Grant High School in Valley Glen.

But medical-marijuana advocates and some academic experts say such
concerns are overblown.

"I think that's something that law enforcement is using as a tactic
to spread fear," said Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access.

"And to intimidate city and county officials from doing what's right
and what's just, which is to establish protections for these
facilities and, if necessary, regulate them in some sensible way."

The Reason Foundation issued a report earlier this year saying that
marijuana-related crimes have decreased since Proposition 215 -
allowing medical use of marijuana in California - was passed by voters in 1996.

"Common sense would say there's no reason why a well-regulated
dispensary would add to ambient crime in the neighborhood at all,"
said report author Skaidra Smith-Heisters.

The only factor that might contribute to crime, she said, "would be
the fact that they're operating without any ground rules right now."

While the Bay Area was the first to embrace medical marijuana - and
its cities were the first to figure out how to handle dispensaries -
more recently the fastest growth has shifted to Los Angeles, and
especially the San Fernando Valley.

Only three years ago, the city had perhaps one or two known
dispensaries. Today, there are at least 150 listed in directories
maintained by advocacy groups. City and law enforcement officials
believe there are as many as 200 to 400.

About half of the city's known dispensaries are in the San Fernando
Valley, meaning a region that has roughly 5 percent of the state's
population has 19 percent of its medical marijuana facilities - more,
in fact, than the entire Bay Area from San Jose to Marin County.

"The center of gravity on this shifted in the last couple of years,"
said Dale Gieringer, director of the California chapter of the
pro-legalization group NORML.

"When it started out, everything was in Northern California."

The first clubs in Los Angeles County, he said, were established in
West Hollywood by operators from the Bay Area.

"After they got established down there, it took a year or two before
somebody was willing to put their toe in across the city line. Then
they did, and all of a sudden, it was 'Katy, bar the door.' The great
cannabis rush was on," he said.

The Los Angeles City Council recently placed a moratorium on the
opening of new facilities while it figures out how to deal with the
growth. Council members are generally sympathetic to legitimate
dispensaries that are seen as helping the seriously ill, but they
want to be able to regulate them and weed out the bad actors.

Although California voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996,
growth has only occurred recently because there had been confusion
about how the law worked. In 2003, the state enacted legislation
spelling out a series of specific regulations.

But even as the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 essentially confirmed the
validity of Proposition 215, it also upheld the federal government's
right to prosecute marijuana patients under federal law.

And that has prompted growing tensions, including in Los Angeles,
where the federal Drug Enforcement Agency has launched raids against
dispensaries.

"We're not going to stop enforcing the federal laws now," said Sarah
Pullen, spokeswoman for the DEA's Los Angeles region.

About nine states have laws permitting medical marijuana, according
to Rosalie Pacula, a drug policy analyst with the RAND Corp.

But California has attracted more attention from the feds, in part,
she said, because its laws are looser than other states', allowing
patients to possess larger quantities and allowing dispensaries to flourish.

"If you're really interested in protecting patients, keep the
quantities low," Pacula said.

Some in Congress are trying to get the DEA to back off, including
Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, and Maurice Hinchey,
D-N.Y., who are backing a bill that would block funding for
prosecutions of medical-marijuana patients.

Without such protections, businesses that believe they are operating
legitimately under California state law still keep a jittery eye out
for federal agents and often try to maintain a low profile.

Holistic Alternative Inc., a nonprofit dispensary in Canoga Park,
opened three months ago and finds it hard to attract new patients
because it can't advertise.

Instead, it and other facilities rely on Internet advertising - a
more discreet option than hanging a big sign out front.

David, a co-owner who asked that his last name be withheld, said he
founded the dispensary with a partner who takes marijuana for
medicinal purposes and wanted to help others.

"I would hope they would leave us alone because most of our patients
are actually really sick," he said. "Probably 90 (percent) to 95
percent of my patients are really sick and do need the medicine.

"If they don't get it from us, I can't see these older ladies and
gentlemen in their 60s and 70s walking around getting drugs off the street."