LOCAL MARIJUANA SHOP REOPENS

One of Bakersfield's medical marijuana dispensaries has reopened,
two weeks after it locked its doors in the wake of federal pot raids.

Jim McGowen has re-opened American Caregivers Collective on Gilmore
Avenue just off Buck Owens Boulevard in Bakersfield.

He is risking arrest and prosecution, he said, because his patients
need his help.

"We had 2,000 phone calls in the first three days (of closure),"
McGowen said outside his dispensary Monday. "We had so many people suffering."

But McGowen is taking a risk.

Medical marijuana is legal under state law. But it is illegal under
federal statutes. In July, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, who
regulated shops under county ordinance, helped federal drug agents
raid Nature's Medicinal Cooperative in Oildale.

McGowen's business and two other local dispensaries closed in the
wake of those raids.

"Even with shutting down, I'm wondering if I'll be arrested and
thrown in prison for what I've already done," McGowen said when he
closed his business.

Now, he said, he is making the decision to stay open on a day-by-day
basis. He said he's struggling to balance the risk of arrest with
the needs of his patients.

"Going to jail is the downside. We're trying to decide how to keep
it going and not go to jail," McGowen said.

Youngblood said reopening is definitely a risk for medical marijuana
businesses. He said he intends to inform federal agents that a
dispensary has re-opened.

"I will go to the feds and ask them to come back," he said.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents had begun to investigate all
of Bakersfield's dispensaries before the Oildale raid, Youngblood
said, and could easily pick up that investigation again.

"I think he has probably opened (himself) to retroactive
investigation," the sheriff said.

If the federal government chooses to do other dispensary raids in
Bakersfield, Youngblood said, he intends to assist federal agents once again.

A slow but steady stream of patients visited American Caregiver's Monday.

Most did not want to speak with a reporter or share their names.

But patient Diane Leedham said she was forced to drive long miles
after Bakersfield's dispensaries closed to obtain a medicine
permitted under state law.

"I had to drive out of county 300 miles," she said.

Leedham said McGowen is brave to reopen his shop and government
leaders should be brave enough to uphold state law.

"We voted for this," she said. "Where are our representatives?"