75A - PH - MEDICAL MARIJUANA - PROHIBIT

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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 ala 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 dov<m 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 com!nunity's health, safety and welfare, violating the provisions the city imposed in Febniary 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, medica] 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, Heruy Friesen, Legal Ease's attorney, said that he hoped to clear up any miscommunication with. the city. Iie 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 ereatn 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 dnig agent said he was able to purchase marijuana at th.e site with a forged doctor's recommendation. (Source: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20060708-9999- l mi8smmari.html) SAN FRANCI80 May 1.4, 2005--.In a daring home-invasion robbery at around l OPM, the house of the owner of Alternative Health and Healing Services at 442 Haight St was robbed of several pounds of cannabis and the dispensary keys. Details are sketchy, but it is believed that the robbers burst into the owner's home at gunpoint. More on this story as details are known. (Source) http://www.hempevolution.org/the/dispensary robbed04051.4.htm 21 75A-30