California, Whittier

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<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: Ordinance 2870

<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: <a class=postlink href=http://municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com/cgi-bin/hilite.pl/codes/whittier/_DATA/TITLE18/Chapter_18_45_MEDICAL_MARIJUAN.html?medical%20marijuana%20dispensary target=_blank>Whittier City Charter, Chapter 18.45</a> - Medical Marijuana Regulations.

Marijuana dispensary may be forced to move

May 2, 2006
By Mike Sprague Staff Writer
The Whittier Daily News


WHITTIER - A medical marijuana dispensary, which has been open since September 2005, may have to close in fewer than two years.

The Whittier Collective, 12450-A Washington Blvd. is in an area where the zoning doesn't allow for medical marijuana dispensaries.

The Planning Commission late Monday was considering a proposal that would give such businesses in areas where they're not allowed two years before they must move.

The Whittier Collective can't be forced to move immediately because it was in existence before the city's medical marijuana law was approved in January, said Jeff Collier, director of community development.

The proposed ordinance would give the Whittier Collective a year from Feb. 9 to continue operating and allow for a one-year extension.

"Staff believes \ provides a reasonable time frame for the amortization of all existing, non-conforming medical marijuana dispensaries within the city," stated Collier in a written staff report.

The proposal - if approved by the commission - would next go to the City Council.

Before December, when the City Council began discussing its ordinance regulating medical marijuana, no one from the city even knew the Whittier Collective existed in the Washington-Whittier Medical Center.

During December's public hearing, representatives of the Whittier Collective came to the council during the public hearing.

The center is across the street from the Tri-Cities Regional Occupational Program for high school students. The law - approved in January - says any such dispensaries must be no closer than 1,000 feet to a school.

The law also prohibits anyone under the age of 21 from entering a marijuana dispensary. It also limits hours of operation to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and requires the facilities to provide security guards.

The Whittier Collective would have to meet those standards under the proposed new law.

Medical marijuana dispensaries have been legal under state law since 1996 when California voters passed Proposition 215 which allows marijuana to be used for medical purposes.

However under federal law, marijuana is illegal to possess and use.

mike.sprague@sgvn.com
(562) 698-0955, Ext. 3022

<img src=bin/whittier_dispensary-location-map.gif>

Medical marijuana dispensaries have been legal under state law since 1996 when California voters passed Proposition 215 which allows marijuana to be used for medical purposes.

Oh really?

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Marijuana facility given two years to close

Whittier, CA, 5/4/2006
By Mike Sprague Staff Writer
The Whittier Daily News


WHITTIER - The Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to require a medical marijuana dispensary to close within two years from when an ordinance is adopted to regulate such establishments.

The Whittier Collective, 12450-A Washington Blvd., opened in September 2005 before the City Council had adopted an ordinance regulating such businesses.

The dispensary can't be forced to move or close immediately because it was in existence before the city's medical marijuana law was approved in January, said Jeff Collier, director of community development.

It is across the street from the Tri-Cities Regional Occupation Program and thus in an area where it would not be allowed under the ordinance.

Deputy City Attorney Krista MacNevin Jee had proposed giving the Whittier Collective a year from Feb. 9 to continue operating and allow for a one-year extension.

But the commission decided that time frame was too short.

"We're calling it a year, but in fact it's not," said Commissioner Marcia Scully. "If we're going to call it a year, it should be a year from when the ordinance was passed."

The proposed ordinance isn't expected to go to the City Council until June or July.

The proposal would give any dispensaries that aren't in a legal area a year from when the ordinance becomes law and allow for a one-year extension.

The law also prohibits anyone under the age of 21 from entering a marijuana dispensary. It also limits hours of operation from 6 a.m. to 10p.m., and requires the facilities to provide security guards.

The Whittier Collective would have 90 days after the passage of the ordinance to meet those standards under the proposed new law.

Medical marijuana dispensaries have been legal under state law since 1996 when California voters passed Proposition 215 which allows marijuana to be used for medical purposes.

However under federal law, marijuana is illegal to possess and use.

mike.sprague@sgvn.com

(562) 698-0955, Ext. 3022

[Midnight toker]

Pot stop can stay
City gives center limited reprieve

By Mike Sprague Staff Writer



WHITTIER - Whittier's only medical marijuana dispensary has won a temporary reprieve from a city proposal that would have required it to shut down within two years.

Whittier City Council members this week put off setting a deadline for the closure of the Whittier Collective until staffers can complete a report on how much the dispensary's organizers have invested in the group's location.

The dispensary, which operates from a nondescript space in a medical office complex on Washington Boulevard, slid in under the city's radar, so to speak, opening before council members could adopt formal zoning regulations in January for such businesses.

That left the city to weigh what to do with the Whittier Collective. On Tuesday, Whittier City Attorney Richard Jones proposed granting the collective one year to stay in business, along with a possible one-year extension - if its organizers could show a hardship.

But that approach could open up the city to possible legal action, Councilman Bob Henderson said.

"Why put yourself in a position to get legally challenged? I don't see any urgency in this at all," Henderson said. "We need something legally defensible. Why not find out the facts? It should take an accountant 20 minutes to figure out the amortization required."

Gregory Silver, an attorney for the Whittier Collective, said Jones' proposal would be unfair to his clients, who have spent between $50,000 to $100,000 on improvements to their location.

The expenditures have included the installation of a sophisticated security system with cameras, Silver said. The group also has an active three-year lease not due to expire until October 2008, with an option for another seven years, Silver said.

"It has to be a reasonable period of time to recoup the up-front costs," Silver said of the city's proposed one-year deadline. "You're putting a lawful tenant in a position where it's obligated to pay rent and not being able to conduct business."

Although he agreed with Henderson's motion to grant staff more time to research the matter, Councilman Greg Nordbak suggested giving the Whittier Collective one year, plus an extension through Oct. 31, 2008, to run concurrently with its lease.

Councilwoman Cathy Warner said she is concerned about the presence of the collective at its current site, near a job-training center for teens and young adults.

"I'm a substitute teacher ... and the students know the business across the street and they know the nature of its business," Warner said.

Medical marijuana dispensaries have been legal under state law since 1996, when California voters passed Proposition 215 allowing marijuana to be used for medical purposes.

However, under federal law, marijuana remains illegal to possess and use.

mike.sprague@sgvn.com

(562) 698-0955, Ext. 3022

[Midnight toker]

Pot center given 2 years

The Whittier Daily News
By Mike Sprague Staff Writer
August 4, 2006


WHITTIER - Although it is outside permitted zones, Whittier's only medical marijuana dispensary will get to stay at its location within a medical office building and near a vocational school through October 2008, city leaders have decided.

Hoping to avoid being sued by the Whittier Collective's attorney, City Council members - voting 3-2 - agreed to give the dispensary two years in which to recoup its operating costs, which officials estimated at $8,500.

"This will greatly reduce our exposure if there's legal action," said Councilman Owen Newcomer, who voted late Tuesday night in favor of the 2008 date.

Mayor Cathy Warner and Councilman Joe Vinatieri, however, voted against it, saying they'd prefer to see the collective closed next year.

Warner cited federal law, which makes it a crime to possess or use marijuana.

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, which allows its use for medical reasons and only when prescribed by a doctor.

"Federal law supersedes state law," Warner said, "and this is an illegal use.

"I realize we're just addressing an amortization period," she added. "But it's across the street from a school. I'd prefer a shorter time period."

City officials were forced into deciding when the collective must move after learning of its existence during a public hearing held last year on whether to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to open in the city.

Council members in January approved an ordinance allowing the dispensaries, but the panel limited them to only commercial and industrial areas of the city.

The city can legally set a deadline for the Whittier Collective to move, City Attorney Dick Jones said, as long as it gives the group enough time to recover any operating money it has spent so far.

But Richard Brizendine, an attorney for the collective, said in a phone interview Wednesday that Jones based his estimate on the $8,500 the group has spent on building improvements, but ignored about $50,000 the group spent on start-up costs, including an elaborate security system with cameras and motion sensors.

"The collective should be allowed sufficient time to recoup their up-front costs and reasonable return of investment," Brizendine said. "I don't believe the council followed the requirement of the law."

Jeff Collier, director of community development, said in a written report that the security system can be removed and transferred to another location.

Brizendine said the collective poses no harm at its location.

"It's the perfect place," he said. "It's a medical dispensary in a medical area."

mike.sprague@sgvn.co

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Pot clubs have critics fuming

<span class=postbold>Medicine: Some say spirit of law has been lost as profit motive pushes out compassion.</span>

<table class=posttable align=right width=300><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg src=bin/molina_steve.jpg></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap>Steve Molina, 49, of Whittier, carries his prescription in a bag outside a Whittier dispensary in late January. On disability, he said he has been using medical marijuana since 1999 for back and stomach pain. </td></tr></table>By Sandy Mazza, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram
Article Launched: 02/04/2007 10:03:45 PM PST

WHITTIER - Some arrived wearing hippie clothes and facial piercings, some wore suits, others were dressed in jeans and sweatshirts.

The diverse group of people filled out paperwork as they sat silently inside a waiting room at the Holistic Clinic, which on every other day of the week is just an ordinary office near a law center and some furniture stores on Whittier Boulevard.

All of them had come for one reason - to receive a physician's recommendation for medical marijuana.

For two hours every Thursday evening, a doctor opens shop at the clinic, evaluating people seeking marijuana. They come with $150 for the doctor's fee and an assortment of ailments - from cancer to AIDS to migraines and menstrual cramps and even sore muscles.

Armando, a 27-year-old medical marijuana user from the Whittier area, who would not reveal his last name for fear of federal prosecution, said he suffered from migraines for years and had bad side effects from prescription medications.

"I was unable to function," before using marijuana, said Armando. "I couldn't do normal, everyday things."

It's been more than a decade since voters allowed people to use marijuana for medical reasons by approving Proposition 215 in 1996. A 2004 law, SB420, expanded 215 by making it legal for groups of patients to grow and use marijuana collectively.

But marijuana - medicinal or not - is still illegal under federal law.

The ambiguity has spawned a booming cottage industry. Medical marijuana dispensaries, fed by a stream of patients from evauluation clinics like the Holistic Clinic in Whittier, have sprung up by the dozens in strip malls across Los Angeles County.

Some police officials say abuse of medical marijuana is widespread and growing and includes recreational users easily getting marijuana recommendations from profit-motivated physicians, dispensaries turning to illegal growers for supplies and people selling their medical pot on the streets.

Proposition 215 co-author the Rev. Scott Imler laments this is not what he envisioned when he helped write the measure on behalf of severely ill patients, he said.

Officials say abuse is hard to quantify, but Imler believes only about 10 percent of the estimated 200,000 medical marijuana users in the state are truly eligible.

Gone is the proposition's initial compassionate spirit, he said. The first dispensaries in the state were largely self-sustaining collectives that grew their own supplies. Marijuana was sold only to cover costs, and patients were rigorously evaluated.

Now, he said, "everything is entrepreneurial, for-profit. "There's no room for charitable, community-based programs. What's being institutionalized are these for-profit entrepreneurs."

Fearing being sued in state courts for banning medical marijuana dispensaries outright, many cities and counties have allowed them to open while restricting them from being close to homes and schools.

Whittier has followed that trend, allowing dispensaries to open in commercial and industrial zones.

Norwalk Station Deputy Chuck Gonzalez said he recently arrested a South Whittier man for illegally dealing marijuana he bought legally at a dispensary.

Anthony Alvarez, 55, of Whittier said he gets marijuana from the Whittier Collective for his terminal liver cancer. He said marijuana has helped him more than any prescription drugs.

"It helps me to eat and maintain my weight," said Alvarez. "I have two types of pain in my abdomen - a stabbing, shooting pain and a pressure pain. When I smoke, I relax."

Sandy Mazza can be reached at sandy.mazza@sgvn.com or at (562) 698-0955, ext. 3026.

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Marijuana dispensary to close

<span class=postbigbold>Federal threats prompt property owner to seek Dec. 31 eviction</span>

by Mike Sprague, Whittier Daily News
November 4th, 2007


There will be no more medical marijuana dispensed from the city's only clinic after Dec. 31, the planning commission ruled Monday night.

Additionally, the Whittier Collective, 12450-A Washington Blvd., has reached agreement with its landlord, the Phelan Family Trust - owners of the Washington-Whittier Medical Center - to vacate the site by that date.

The dispensary had applied to extend its conditional use permit until Oct. 31, 2008, but that became moot after the landlord sought to evict the clinic.

The attempted eviction because of a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice to the landlord threatening jail time and loss of property because it's renting to a medical marijuana clinic, said Richard Brizendine, the collective's attorney.

The lease, which expires in October 2008, includes provisions that the clinic not violate any laws.

"The collective is operating in conformance with state and municipal law, but the difference is we're not in conformance with federal law," Brizendine said.

Since the clinic doesn't have the money to appeal an adverse judgement, it decided to shut down voluntarily, he said.

"Obviously we're disappointed, but what is really necessary is for the federal and state governments to come into alignment on the laws surrounding medical marijuana, he said.

California voters in 1996 approved Proposition 215 allowing marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Marijuana use remains illegal under federal law.

The clinic has several hundred patients, said Bill Britt, a member of the Whittier Collective and executive director and founder of Association of Patient Advocates.

"It's so sad," Britt said. "You're getting sick and disabled people who had safe access who now are forced to go into the streets and buy it from criminals."

The Whittier Collective opened in September 2005. City officials learned of it while the council was debating an ordinance to allow, but regulate such clinics.

The clinic opened in an area where the city didn't allow medical marijuana dispensaries.

[palmspringsbum]

Pico Rivera woman wants to open medical marijuana dispensary in Whittier

The Whittier Daily News
By Mike Sprague, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/03/2009 05:02:58 PM PDT


WHITTIER - A Pico Rivera woman wants to open a medical marijuana dispensary here and has applied to the city for a conditional-use permit.

Dolores Enriquez wants to open the dispensary at 8116 Byron Road, No. D. City planning staff has 30 days to determine if her application is complete and then set it for a hearing.

Enriquez, her son, Robert Ortiz, and friend Sandra Newby formed a nonprofit group, Seventh and Hope, to operate the business.

"They see the need and they want to fill it," said Katherine Clifton, attorney for Enriquez. "They know people with AIDS, cancer and glaucoma."

Clifton said they selected Whittier because it has an ordinance allowing medical marijuana dispensaries in certain areas of the city and didn't already have one.

"There are sick people who have to drive up and down the state to get the medical care they need and their doctors have recommended," he said.

The Whittier City Council in December of 2005 on a 3-2 vote approved an ordinance regulating such establishments.

It also limited them to industrial areas that are at least 1,000 feet away from schools or in essence to a small area south of Washington Boulevard and west of Lambert Road.

There was a dispensary previously in Whittier in the Washington-Whittier Medical Center that was forced to vacate because it was not in the area the city allows for such uses.

California voters in 1996 approved Proposition 215 allowing marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Marijuana use remains illegal under federal law.

And the latter is why Enriquez's proposal could run into problems with the City Council. Councilwoman Cathy Warner has asked for a review of the city's existing ordinance.

Warner was one of the two votes - Councilman Owen Newcomer was the other - against it at the time.

"I think with our new member (Mayor Joe Vinatieri) on the council, it's appropriate to review it," Warner said.

"My preference from the outset was not to support the ordinance because federal law (which outlaws the use of marijuana) supersedes state law," she said.

"We're out of compliance with federal law," she said. "My intent is to give this another look and see if there would be three council members that would be in support of federal law."

Warner said she hasn't changed her opinion even in the light of the announcement by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state laws.

"It's a matter of opinion," she said of Holder's announcement. "I think this is (still) illegal."

But it may not matter what the council does.

If the application is deemed complete, any council-approved ban of medical marijuana dispensaries would have no effect on it, said Jeff Collier, director of community development.

The council can't ban something that's already in place, Collier said.

mike.sprague@sgvn.com

(562) 698-0955, Ext. 3022