Pubdate: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 Source: Modesto Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 2005 The Modesto Bee Contact: http://www.modbee.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/271 Author: Adam Ashton Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) COUNCIL TELLS SHOP TO CEASE POT SALES Vote On Medical Marijuana Dispensary Infuriates Many About 120 people at the Modesto council meeting Tuesday, including Beyer High government class students, right, sat through a lengthy debate on closing a medical marijuana dispensary. Despite the pleas of a dying woman, the Modesto City Council on Tuesday night voted to shut a McHenry Avenue shop that fills medical marijuana prescriptions and to ban permanently similar businesses from opening in the city. The unanimous vote angered many people in a crowd of about 120 who sat through a three-hour debate between people who said they relied on medical marijuana to ease chronic pain and others who said the city should not sanction a shop that violates federal laws. Council members did not discuss the merits of the measure, which requires California Healthcare Collective to close its doors by July 14, 2006. Councilmen Denny Jackman and Garrad Marsh were absent and did not vote. Luke Skarmozzo, a manager at the collective, said the business intends to fight the council vote. "We're not going to stop," he said. "There are too many patients who have a right to access their medicine safely." One medical marijuana user, who did not want to identify herself because she has not told her family that she has been diagnosed with two forms of cancer, said the ban would send her to the streets to get the drug. "I don't want you to close the club, because I personally need it," she said. Others said they'll have to drive to the Bay Area to get their medicine once the ban takes effect. "We're going to have to drive to Hayward or Oakland, and I can't drive," said Diana Gimbel Dominici, a Modesto woman whose daughter cares for her. Shop's foes say it encourages crime Supporters of the ban said the clinic encourages the illegal sale of marijuana on the street by giving it to people who fake illnesses to doctors, then hawk the drugs from the collective as dealers. "The people that are getting these cards don't need them. They're just furthering their addictions," said Karl Meabrod, 48, a Modesto addiction counselor. "I don't want a marijuana dispensary in Stanislaus County, because I believe it would encourage sales of the drug and, thereby, crime in our community," said David Whiting, 48, a Turlock man who called himself a former methamphetamine addict. Modesto police Sgt. Craig Gundlach led an investigation into California Healthcare Collective and concluded, "It relates more to a criminal enterprise than it does to a pharmacy." Gundlach said officers have found materials from the collective on several people suspected of dealing drugs. He said the department also has received reports of people filling a prescription and then selling marijuana to someone else in the collective's parking lot. His investigation led Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden to tell the council, "I do not see a way that it can be done safely or effectively in our community." The council has debated what to do with the clinic since March; opponents of the ban say the issue won't end with Tuesday's vote. The city could expect a lawsuit from Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group that has sued to overturn a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in Fresno. The group sent a letter to Modesto City Attorney Michael Milich, saying it might adopt the same course here. Milich argued that the city can defend the ban because state laws do not allow medical marijuana clinics to earn a profit -- which California Healthcare Collective says it does -- and federal law calls marijuana an illegal substance. In June, the Supreme Court affirmed that federal laws banning the drug trump California's Proposition 215, which allows certain people to use it for medicinal purposes. Robert Raiche, an attorney who helped bring the case to the court on behalf of his ill wife, urged the Modesto council to follow the lead of other cities, such as Oakland, which have allowed a handful of medical marijuana dispensaries to operate. "This is actually a legal way for people to obtain a legal medicine in California," said Raiche, who is representing the Modesto collective. He said Milich misinterpreted the state law detailing how people can get medical marijuana, arguing that dispensaries are legal and can be compensated for the service they provide. Raiche said the city's planning commission seemed to endorse that path on Nov. 21, when it rejected an outright ban on dispensaries by a 5-2 vote, with Kristin Olsen and Dave Cogdill Jr. supporting the ban. Livingston, Manteca, Merced and Turlock have banned medical marijuana dispensaries, but none of those cities had a business already selling the drug when councils enacted the measures. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman