Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jun 2007
Source: Desert Sun, The (Palm Springs, CA)
Copyright: 2007 The Desert Sun
Contact: http://www.thedesertsun.com/opinion/lettersubmitter.shtml
Website: http://www.thedesertsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1112
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Author: Marcel Honore, The Desert Sun
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

LA QUINTA CITY COUNCIL BANS POT DISPENSARIES

The La Quinta City Council voted 5-0 Tuesday to ban  medical marijuana
dispensaries, making La Quinta the  second valley city after Palm
Desert to prohibit the  dispensaries outright.

Most council members said they supported the rights of  California's
medical marijuana users, but they voted  for the ban to uphold federal
law. State law permits  the seriously ill to acquire medical
marijuana, while  federal law prohibits it.

Lanny Swerdlow, director of the Inland Empire-based  Marijuana
Anti-Prohibition Project, called the  council's actions "typical."

He presented the council with section 3.5 of the  California
Constitution, which upholds state statutes  above over federal law
unless directed by an appellate  court.

But council officials were not convinced.

"Federal law supercedes state law, period," Councilman  Stanley Sniff
said. "There's just no conflict. It is  illegal, plain and simple."

City Attorney Kathy Jenson said state law doesn't  require cities to
have the dispensaries.

She added that La Quinta opted to ban the dispensaries  rather than
create a moratorium like other desert  cities, because La Quinta
hadn't received any  applications to operate a dispensary. She said
the ban  would clearly set the city's policy.

"We are taking a proactive step," Jenson said. Several  at the meeting
spoke out against the ban.

La Quinta resident Jim Camper used to own and operate  the Organic
Solutions of the Desert dispensary in  Desert Hot Springs before it
recently closed. Desert  Hot Springs has a moratorium on
dispensaries.

He told the council many of his former 200 medical  marijuana clients
- - most of them elderly - "call him  constantly" asking what to do,
because "there's no  place to go now."

Camper, also a medical marijuana patient, said his only  alternative
without the drug would be morphine, which  he said he will not use.

Kay Wolff, wife of La Quinta's first mayor, Fred Wolff,  also spoke
against the ban, citing a friend who used  medical marijuana to treat
pain.

The state's attorney general is drafting an opinion on  whether
dispensaries are legal in California, and it's  expected by summer's
end. Swerdlow wondered why the  council would not first wait for that
opinion.

Councilwoman Terry Henderson said the ban could be  reversed if
federal or state laws change in favor of  medical marijuana usage.

"Our city is much too small to fight the fight for the  state of
California," she said.
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