COUNTY BARS MEDICAL POT FACILITIES FROM SETTING UP SHOP

Law Enforcement Authorities Back the Ban by Saying the Dispensaries
Attract Crime.

Merced County officials passed a law this week permanently banning
medical marijuana dispensaries across the unincorporated county.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to support the
law, which mirrors ordinances already adopted by the cities of
Merced, Los Banos and Atwater.

Though there are no marijuana dispensaries in Merced County,
officials said during Tuesday's board meeting that dispensaries have
proven troublesome in other communities. Besides attracting crime,
they can lower nearby property values, disrupt nearby businesses and
increase illegal drug use and demands on police, county planning
officials said.

Law enforcement officials spoke in support of the ban. Chris
Gallagher, chief of the Los Banos Police Department, said robberies
and violent crimes occurred regularly at dispensaries in the city of
Arcata in Humboldt County, where he previously served as chief of
police. "In my experience ... these dispensaries have been extremely
disruptive," Gallagher said.

Merced Police Chief Russ Thomas and Atwater Police Chief Richard
Hawthorne also spoke in support of the new law.

Three people spoke against the ban, including two medical marijuana
patients. "What little compassion you have for sick people in this
community," said Atwater resident Ed Gassaway. "It's appalling."

Other critics of the ban said it will only push patients to the black
market to buy marijuana. They say instead of outlawing dispensaries,
local governments should pass ordinances strictly regulating when,
where and how they can operate. About 35 cities and counties across
the state have taken that approach, according to a county report.

Fifty-seven cities and three other counties have chosen outright
bans, including Stanislaus County.

"This is a huge mistake. It's a step in the wrong direction," said
Merced resident Grant Wilson, who has long been on a personal crusade
to protect the rights of local medical marijuana users. For years
Wilson urged county officials to begin issuing identification cards
for medical marijuana patients.

Last August, in an attempt to avoid issuing the cards, the county
joined a lawsuit brought against the state by San Diego County. The
counties argued that because federal law prohibits all uses of the
drug, counties shouldn't be held to state laws requiring them to
accommodate medical marijuana users.

The counties lost. In May, the Merced County public health department
launched a program to issue the identification cards. So far, 11 have
been issued.

In California, people with a valid prescription for marijuana are
allowed to have up to eight usable ounces of the drug and six mature
pot plants.

The ID cards are meant to help law enforcement officials quickly
determine whether a person found in possession of marijuana is using
the drug in compliance with the law, or whether he or she should be arrested.

Just under half of California's 58 counties issue ID cards, as
required by a 2003 state law that expanded on Proposition 215.

California voters became the first in the country to legalize
medicinal marijuana when they passed the proposition in 1996. Since
then, 10 states have followed.

All marijuana users can still be prosecuted under federal law.

Wilson, 51, suffers from hepatitis C. He was arrested in 2005 after
police discovered pot plants growing in his home. Wilson says he
still grows his own marijuana, but he doesn't have the greenest
thumb. When his crop doesn't produce as he hopes, he is forced to
travel to dispensaries in San Francisco and Oakland to buy the drug.
"All I want is to get my medicine close to home," he said Tuesday.

The county adopted a temporary ordinance banning marijuana
dispensaries in May 2005. It expired a year later.

Before approving the permanent ban, supervisors said they support the
law because the county's law enforcement departments are already
overtaxed. They said dispensaries aren't necessary because there are
so few medical marijuana users in Merced and because patients are
permitted to grow their own marijuana in their homes.

Supervisor Mike Nelson noted that most Merced County residents -- 56
percent of them -- didn't support Proposition 215 in 1996.