The Compassionate Coalition

Revised law would allow people to grow marijuana but not dispense it
By ADAM ASHTON
BEE STAFF WRITER
Source: http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12781920p-13474385c.html
Last Updated: September 27, 2006, 05:27:27 AM PDT

The Modesto City Council renewed its push to close a McHenry Avenue medical marijuana clinic Tuesday night, 10 months after it passed a law aimed at shutting the city's only cannabis club.

This time, the council directed City Attorney Susanna Alcala Wood to close a loophole in an ordinance that effectively allowed nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries to do business.

The California Healthcare Collective, which opened on McHenry in late 2004, is registered as a nonprofit with the secretary of state's office.

Its attorneys have argued that the previous draft of the law did not apply to the club, although it did not identify itself formally as a nonprofit until Aug. 4, according to records from the secretary of state's office.

The clinic initially opened for business as a for-profit corporation, according to the state's records. Attorney James Anthony, who represents the collective's directors, said last week that they always intended for the clinic to operate as a nonprofit and they drafted bylaws that reflected their purpose.

Some of the clinic's clients pleaded with the council to let the collective stay in business.

"The only real relief that I get from the pain associated with (arthritis), and that has allowed me to be mobile, is the allowance of the use of medicinal marijuana," said Randall Jones, 51, a Turlock man who said he sought marijuana from street dealers before the collective opened.

"When I walk up, I don't feel like somebody's going to mug me," Jones said. "The dispensary makes me feel safe."

Council members directed Wood to rewrite the ordinance so it clarifies that people can grow marijuana for medicinal use in the city in accordance with state law, but that Modesto will not allow any business to sell the drug.

The city is trying to balance a state law that permits seriously ill people to use medical mari-juana with federal law, which prohibits all uses of marijuana and does not recognize any medical benefits to the drug, according to Wood's staff report.

Councilman Brad Hawn said he recognized that chronically ill people rely on medical marijuana to ease their pain, but he said he didn't want the city to permit sales of the drug.

"As a city, we should not have a dispensary," he said.

Elsewhere in Stanislaus County, cities are moving to prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries, but none has banned them yet. None of them has a clinic in business, either.

Ceres, Hughson, Newman, Riverbank, Turlock and Waterford each placed moratoriums on medical marijuana dispensaries this year. City attorneys have advocated for those temporary restrictions to give them time to sort out their obligations under conflicting state and fed-eral laws.

Jones and several others at the meeting said it was unreasonable to expect sick people to grow their own marijuana.

"I can't garden," he said. "I can't bend over."

Ken Gardner, 41, said he lives near the clinic and has not seen an uptick in crime that would justify the city forcing the collective to close. He said growing marijuana outdoors could attract dangerous people who could harm those who rely on medicinal cannabis.

"I would like to see something tangible that shows the dispens-ary is a problem," Gardner said.

In December, Police Chief Roy Wasden and Sgt. Craig Gund-lach argued in favor of banning the dispensaries. They said medical marijuana cards frequently were found at large drug busts, sometimes with serious narcotics, such as methamphetamine.

Representatives from the clinic did not attend Tuesday's meeting. They have filed a lawsuit against the city seeking to block Modesto from enforcing its ban on dispensaries, but they have not served the city with a complaint.

Anthony said he would do so if the city tries to shut the clinic under its previous law.

Bee staff writer Adam Ashton can be reached at 578-2366 or aashton@modbee.com.