Dispensaries

Arizona lawyers can legally help those who want to help the rest of us get high legally.

The State Bar of Arizona has concluded that attorney are entitled to help clients set up marijuana dispensaries and otherwise navigate the state’s new medical marijuana law even though it means they are aiding people in breaking federal laws. More to the point, the formal opinion means lawyers won’t end up facing ethics charges that could lead to their disbarment.

But that new permission to proceed comes with some caveats.

First, the attorney must reasonably believe that the client’s plans fall within the law that voters approved in November permitting individuals with a doctor’s permission to obtain up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks. That same law will eventually result in about 125 clinics being set up around the state to sell marijuana, with an undetermined number of sites to cultivate the drug.

Second, the attorneys will be required to inform those they are advising there is still a risk they could wind up in trouble with federal authorities.

Still, the opinion provides the first formal sign that people who need legal help will be able to get it, whether to incorporate to set up a clinic or cultivation site or even just to deal with some problem getting the requisite state permission to buy the drug — legal help that, until now, has been considered “unethical” for lawyers to provide and subjecting them to discipline.

The problem for attorneys has been that formal rules governing their conduct prohibit them from “knowingly counseling or assisting a client to commit a crime.” And while Arizona law makes it legal for some people to cultivate, sell and possess marijuana, all three activities can still land people in federal prison.

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Hemet has made permanent an ordinance that strictly prohibits medical marijuana facilities from operating and soon may move ahead with legal action against those who do not close their doors.

The Hemet City Council voted 4-0 Tuesday to ban the shops in the city limits. City Councilman Jim Foreman was absent.

A temporary ordinance has been in place since April 2009. The two-year limit on the emergency moratorium was set to expire in April.

Five such shops are currently open in Hemet. The city sent cease-and-desist letters in the past month. In closed session, the council gave the city permission to proceed with an injunction against the shops if they do not close by the date specified in the letter.

That date is within the next 14 days.

The ordinance does not prohibit qualified patients from using or growing their own marijuana and is strictly limited to the storefront businesses.

One resident, John Gifford, spoke in support of the ordinance.

He said access to the marijuana was a quality-of-life issue for those who need it, but the storefronts were a quality-of-life issue for others.

Eddy Hooper, partner in the Wellness 951 Collective, made an impassioned plea but then cut himself short, saying "You have already voted, and it is wrong."

Resident John Dodridge said, "Now this town is going to ban people from smoking a little pot while living here. I'm very disappointed in you guys."

After the public hearing segment, no council members spoke about the ordinance. The four council members in attendance voted and moved on with the agenda as much of the crowd in the chambers left.

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The North Island Compassion club, a medical marijuana group, was busted by Comox Valley RCMP last week.

On Friday, police executed a search warrant on the club's headquarters on Sixth Street in Courtenay on Vancouver Island.

They seized several pounds of marijuana, and arrested four people. RCMP spokeswoman Const. Tammy Douglas confirmed two were charged and released on a promise to appear in court.

"Police are concerned the club has become a front for marijuana dealing," said Douglas in a statement. "We recognize there are conflicting views on the medicinal value of marijuana but it remains illegal to sell in the manner in which they were conducting business."

Ernie Yacub is a director for the club and claims to be one of the two persons charged.

He said the bust shook up a lot of his fellow club members, many of whom he said are already nervous when it comes to getting hold of medicinal marijuana.

"We're talking about people who are sick in the first place, who are having all kinds of similar issues anyway, people who are afraid to talk to their doctors about marijuana ... ," said Yacub. "... So here we have a legal program where some people can access [medical marijuana] while the rest of us are criminalized, and the access is denied."

The Compassion Club has been operating for 10 years and has been at its current location for the last seven. Before that, Yacub said the club was dispensing marijuana at the train station.

He said police were civil and respectful during the bust on Friday but added, "If there's something they don't like about our operation, they can talk to us, instead of coming in here and taking all our medicine..."

Yacub said the club's members - there are 200, by his estimate - depend on the marijuana for pain relief. Yacub himself suffers from spinal stenosis.

"Imagine if the cops raided the only pharmacy in town and took everything. That's what it is for some of our members. Many of them are already on pharmaceuticals, but they also use [marijuana], because it works."

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OAKLAND, CA (CNN) - The IRS is auditing marijuana dispensaries in California, and advocates have called for a change in federal laws.

The sale of medical marijuana is legal under state law, but illegal under federal law, and cannabis collectives say there is a problem because of the way they are being treated by the IRS.

Tax code 280-E does not allow drug trafficking organizations to deduct business expenses.

"If 280-E were applied strictly, we would not be allowed to deduct our rent, our payroll or any of the other normal and usual expenses that other businesses deduct," said Steve DeAngelo, Harborside Health Center.

Attorney Henry Wykowski is representing various dispensaries that are being audited, and he said 280-E was created in the 80s to go after drug lords, and it should be updated.

"What the California dispensaries are engaged in is not trafficking," Wykowski said. "They're engaged in a legal activity that benefits their patients."

Several members of congress have drafted a letter to the IRS, asking it to allow dispensaries to deduct business expenses and not treat the organizations as drug traffickers.

"I hope that what's going on is that the IRS is making a good faith attempt to understand our industry and to tax us like any other businesses would be taxed," DeAngelo said. "And I'm in support of that. We want to pay our fair share of taxes."

DeAngelo welcomed the audit, and he said the audit will help advance the cannabis industry.

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A self-described "therapeutic cannabis resource center" continues to operate in Temecula, despite a citywide ban on medical marijuana dispensaries.

The legal affairs director at Cooperative Patients' Services insists it isn't a dispensary, nor does it distribute the drug. Douglas Lanphere said it is an agricultural co-op that allows members to exchange the drug with each other.

"We're merely a service group," he said. "We provide a service between cultivating members and consuming members."

Riverside County sheriff's Capt. Andre O'Harra, who serves as Temecula's police chief, said police are aware of the establishment.

"The situation's under review from the city right now as far as what the city plans on doing about it," he said. "It's going to be based on what we find as a result of the review."

City planning chief Patrick Richardson said the establishment's business licenses allows it to sell equipment for hydroponic plants, but specifically forbids the distribution of marijuana.

Lanphere said police have not stopped by since his co-op got its use-and-occupancy permit in January.

"If the city felt we were in some way out of compliance, they would be better served letting us work with them" instead of mounting a costly legal challenge, he said.

CONFLICTING LAWS

California law allows people to use marijuana to treat a variety of ailments, provided they have a doctor's recommendation. Most Inland cities, however, prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries, and federal law bans the use of marijuana for any reason.

The result is a tricky standoff between cities and medical marijuana advocates. The city of Riverside is currently pursuing court injunctions against a number of medical marijuana establishments.

The would-be operators of a medical marijuana storefront in Wildomar have sued that city, claiming state law doesn't allow for blanket bans on dispensaries. The Wildomar Patients Compassionate Group is closed for now after a judge in December granted the city a preliminary injunction.

WHITE-COAT TREATMENT

With a window logo combining a marijuana leaf, a medical cross and a handshake, Cooperative Patients' Services operates out of a leased storefront in a tucked-away corner of an Old Town Front Street commercial building visible from Interstate 15.

Lanphere said the co-op's membership of roughly 900 people has grown by more than 500 since it opened. The vast majority of patients are from Temecula, he said.

A security guard controls access from the outside. Staff members wear white lab coats. The inside is spotless

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SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) -- It may be the end of the road for medical marijuana dispensaries in San Bernardino County.

The county's planning commission voted Thursday to recommend an ordinance outlawing dispensaries. It would also ban patients from growing marijuana outdoors.

A two-year moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries in San Bernardino County is set to expire in June.

Opponents say banning dispensaries would encourage medical marijuana users to turn to drug dealers for their medicine.

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