California, San Marcos

[palmspringsbum]

Medical marijuana store may shut down

City hopes to close legal pot dispensary

By Linda Lou
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 8, 2006

SAN MARCOS – An existing medical-marijuana dispensary here survived a City Council vote in February that banned any more dispensaries from opening.

It was able to receive a business license because it called itself a nutritional supplement store, city officials said. But the dispensary's ability to remain open is now uncertain.

On Thursday, local and federal law enforcement officers went to the storefront on Rancho Santa Fe Road and seized all of the marijuana and products laced with the drug's byproducts as part of raids of dispensaries countywide.

Now the city is intent on shutting down the business, run by Legal Ease Inc. of San Diego, because it's been burglarized several times since the council's vote, said City Manager Rick Gittings. The city contends it's a threat to the community's health, safety and welfare, violating the provisions the city imposed in February when it allowed the dispensary to stay open, Gittings said.

The concept of providing medical marijuana to patients who really need it has good intentions, but as indicated by state and federal prosecutors this week, medical marijuana dispensaries are fronts for drug peddling, Gittings said.

Recently, Legal Ease asked the city to transfer its business license to a new location on Grand Avenue. The city rejected the request in a letter sent to Legal Ease last month. The letter said that another business near the dispensary's current location was burglarized because it was mistaken for the dispensary. The letter also said Legal Ease had failed at least once to submit security tapes of its premises and has failed to reveal what was stolen in the burglaries.

Though the letter didn't say the city wanted to close the business, that conclusion is “painfully obvious,” Gittings said.

City officials will meet with Legal Ease's representatives next week to discuss the situation, he said. Gittings said he doesn't know when the dispensary would be closed.

When reached earlier this week, Henry Friesen, Legal Ease's attorney, said that he hoped to clear up any miscommunication with the city. He said he thought the new location would be approved, based on discussions with representatives from the Sheriff Department's San Marcos substation and the Fire Department.

Sgt. Gary Floyd, supervisor of San Marcos' street narcotics and gang unit, said he's not aware that Legal Ease had talked with the Sheriff's Department about relocating. He said that after some recent early-morning burglaries, the dispensary installed roll-up metal security covers over the door and window because thieves had smashed the glass to get inside.

In Thursday's raid, dozens of candy bars and cartons of ice cream containing THC, a marijuana byproduct, were confiscated, Floyd said. Bags of packaged marijuana and larger bags of the drug used to refill the smaller ones were also taken, he said. No one was arrested.

In December, a federal drug agent said he was able to purchase marijuana at the site with a forged doctor's recommendation.



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Linda Lou: (760) 737-7574; linda.lou@uniontrib.com