Medicinal marijuana goes up in smoke

Times are getting tougher for medical marijuana users in Laguna Beach.

Four months after the Laguna Beach City Council declined to approve an ordinance amendment to bar business licenses for medical marijuana facilities — citing “compassion” for cancer and AIDS patients — city officials have succeeded in pushing the facilities out.

A medical marijuana dispensary that has operated since August closed up shop last week, lacking a business license or use permit.

Three months earlier, Dr. Alfonso Jimenez, a doctor who recommends marijuana, left town for new offices in Monarch Beach after being unable to obtain a business license in Laguna Beach.

The Laguna Beach Collective had relocated from Newport Beach in August, operating out of a Third Street location next to Laguna Beach Police headquarters, according to a young man at the recently closed dispensary who did not want to be identified.

The facility was open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and weekends from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., providing marijuana to people with a doctor’s recommendation, allowing them to use the drug to alleviate pain or other medical conditions.

Two months ago, the dispensary moved to a quiet office above the 200 block of Forest Avenue.

The business had to close because it lacked a business license and a conditional-use permit, said John Pietig, Laguna Beach assistant city manager.

The dispensary, which was still open on Tuesday, consisted of a lobby with sofas and an inner room with a small pass-through window. No patients were present when a reporter visited.

A young man behind the window — who asked that his name not be used — confirmed that the facility was closing because of the lack of a business license and that no other location had been found for it in Laguna Beach.

Under California’s 10-year-old Proposition 215, marijuana may be used with a doctor’s authorization for medicinal purposes, but that law conflicts with federal anti-drug laws banning marijuana use completely.

Cities have taken various strategies to dealing with the medical marijuana issue, from permitting “cannabis clubs” to proliferate to totally outlawing them.

Last summer, Laguna Beach police expressed concerns to city officials about a cannabis cooperative in the city, which they say places them in a dilemma.

“We’ve had resources tied up with people who left a dispensary with marijuana and were cited even though they had a card recommending marijuana,” Det. Sgt. Darin Lenyi said.

“It is our policy to cite people for marijuana even if they have the cards, and we leave it up to the district attorney whether to prosecute.

“We have no idea if the [marijuana] cards are legitimate; we can’t confirm the validity, and there’s no oversight,” Lenyi said. “Ninety-nine percent of the medical marijuana users look totally healthy.”

In August, city officials were asked to amend city ordinances to, in effect, outlaw the dispensaries.

The Planning Commission approved an amendment to the city’s zoning code prohibiting businesses from obtaining conditional-use permits or other entitlements if the business violated any city, state or federal law.

When the effect of the ordinance amendments were revealed in the Coastline Pilot, members of the city’s HIV community — the primary advocates of medical marijuana in Laguna — lobbied strongly against the measure on the grounds that marijuana is the only substance that relieves symptoms for some AIDS patients.

The City Council initially approved — with no comment and no public testimony — an amendment to the municipal code that would have prohibited a business from obtaining a city business license if the business violated any state or federal law.

After hearing from medical marijuana users and physicians, the City Council tabled a second reading on the amendment, essentially denying it.

Since then, city officials appear to be moving against the dispensaries and medical marijuana doctor’s clinics.

Jimenez runs Medical Marijuana of Orange County, which provides patients with the state-required doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana medicinally. He said he came to Laguna Beach because of the city’s large gay population and reputation as a liberal bastion.

“There was positive energy here, not like in Huntington Beach or Newport Beach,” he said.

Jimenez admits he neglected to obtain a city business license while he operated for almost a year out of an upper-story office on Broadway in downtown Laguna Beach.

“I was subleasing, operating month-to-month, and didn’t expect to stay that long,” he said.

When the lease was not renewed, he attempted to relocate to an office on South Coast Highway and was told he would have to get a business license by the end of January.

“When I went to get a business license, they refused, saying it was not a business site, but apartments,” Jimenez said. “The landlord said it had been a business site for 15 years.”

Pietig said that while he had no knowledge of Jimenez’s case, “in order to get a business license, a business has to be able to meet the zoning requirements.”

Los Angeles attorney Bruce Margolin, who advocates medical marijuana use, accused the city of thwarting the will of the voters who approved Proposition 215.

“In California, we don’t enforce federal law,” he said. “These cities are trying to come up with a basis to deny the use of medical marijuana which is out of line. They should be ashamed.

“There will be a black market [in marijuana],” he said. “They won’t make it go away. It’s better to have it in the light of day.”

Jimenez says he had decided to move to Monarch Bay Plaza three months ago anyway, in conjunction with other medical professionals.

“The city [of Laguna Beach] is sticking their head in the sand on this issue,” Jimenez said. “They need to open it up to the council to vote on it. It [medical marijuana facilities] should be allowed but regulated, or it will get out of control.”

There are more than 20 cannabis collectives in Orange County listed on the Web site Lanorml.org.

PROS AND CONS OF MARIJUANA

Marijuana has benefits and risks, according to the Mayo Clinic.

While the Mayo Clinic states that marijuana has been proven to have medicinal benefits for serious diseases — such as glaucoma, nausea from chemotherapy, and to treat wasting from HIV/AIDS — it cautions that marijuana use can lead to mental confusion, reduced ability to problem-solve, reduced balance and coordination, and heightened risk of heart attack.

The Mayo Clinic website, www.mayoclinic.com/health /medical-marijuana, also states that marijuana smoke contains 50% more carcinogens than tobacco, and, because it is inhaled more deeply, is more dangerous.

Marijuana had been listed on the U.S. Pharmacopeia, the organization that sets standards for safe drug use, until the 1940s, when “political pressure against marijuana’s recreational use” forced it to be removed, according to the Mayo Clinic site.