Pubdate: Tue, 10 Nov 2015 Source: Orange County Register, The (CA) Copyright: 2015 The Orange County Register Contact: http://www.ocregister.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321 MARIJUANA WHACK-A-MOLE Sky High Collective is open again. This is the medical marijuana dispensary where, on May 26, a hidden security camera that went unnoticed recorded police officers dismantling surveillance equipment, playing darts, making derogatory remarks about an amputee bystander and, purportedly, helping themselves to some edible marijuana products. The shop is proving a perpetual black eye for the Santa Ana Police Department, as the reopening comes just weeks after the dispensary was raided and closed by police. It was the third raid, and the fourth enforcement action, in five months. But Sky High also is proving to be a perpetual reminder that the city's tactics in ferreting out illegal medical pot operators remain ineffective. But that is the price of a policy that places police action ahead of providing legal access. "If Sky High reopens without a proper business license, it's subject to further enforcement," Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, a spokesman for the Santa Ana Police Department, told the Register. "They are not one of the 20 approved dispensaries." But then, only three licensed dispensaries have opened in Santa Ana, and the city doesn't seem to have a good excuse as to why the pace of legalizing dispensaries hasn't kept up with the speed of closing down illegal operators. As we learned from Prohibition, making something illegal doesn't end demand for it. Be it alcohol or marijuana, until legally permissible options are made available to users, as voters intended in approving Measure BB, users will find other ways to obtain them, and the city will continue to waste resources on raids. The odyssey of Sky High Collective confirms the city's current policies on pot legalization to be the failure we long suspected. Not only is it a waste of taxpayer funds spent on cyclical enforcement, but it also harms legal operators struggling to gain a foothold. In those city-sanctioned operations, not only does the city have a tax base one dispensary paid the city $22,900 in its first month of legal operation but likely a partner in the city's campaign to have its marijuana commerce fully legal. Illegal operators are cutting into the legal business. Imagine the revenue 20 legal dispensaries could provide the city. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom