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LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSES <br />Local governmental bodies can impose a moratorium on the licensing of marijuana dispensaries <br />while investigating this issue; can ban this type of activity because it violates federal law; can use <br />zoning to control the dispersion of dispensaries and the attendant problems that accompany them in <br />unwanted areas; and can condition their operation on not violating any federal or state law, which is <br />akin to banning them, since their primary activities will always violate federal law as it now exists- <br />and almost surely California law as well. <br />LIABILITY <br />While highly unlikely, local public officials, including county supervisors and city council members, <br />could potentially be charged and prosecuted for aiding and abetting criminal acts by authorizing and <br />licensing marijuana dispensaries if they do not qualify as "cooperatives" under California law, which <br />would be a rare occurrence. Civil liability could also result. <br />ENFORCEMENT OF MARIJUANA LAWS <br />While the Drug Enforcement Administration has been very active in raiding large-scale marijuana <br />dispensaries in California in the recent past, and arresting and prosecuting their principals under <br />federal law in selective cases, the new U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, Jr., has very recently <br />announced a major change of federal position in the enforcement of federal drug laws with respect to <br />marijuana dispensaries. It is to target for prosecution only marijuana dispensaries that are exposed <br />as fronts for drug trafficking. It remains to be seen what standards and definitions will be used to <br />determine what indicia will constitute a drug trafficking operation suitable to trigger investigation <br />and enforcement under the new federal administration. <br />Some counties, like law enforcement agencies in the County of San Diego and County of Riverside, <br />have been aggressive in confronting and prosecuting the operators of marijuana dispensaries under <br />state law. Likewise, certain cities and counties have resisted granting marijuana dispensaries <br />business licenses, have denied applications, or have imposed moratoria on such enterprises. Here, <br />too, the future is uncertain, and permissible legal action with respect to marijuana dispensaries may <br />depend on future court decisions not yet handed down. <br />Largely because the majority of their citizens have been sympathetic and projected a favorable <br />attitude toward medical marijuana patients, and have been tolerant of the cultivation and use of <br />marijuana, other local public officials in California cities and counties, especially in Northern <br />California, have taken a "hands off' attitude with respect to prosecuting marijuana dispensary <br />operators or attempting to close down such operations. But, because of the life safety hazards <br />caused by ensuing fires that have often erupted in resultant home grow operations, and the violent <br />acts that have often shadowed dispensaries, some attitudes have changed and a few political entities <br />have reversed course after having previously licensed dispensaries and authorized liberal permissible <br />amounts of marijuana for possession by medical marijuana patients in their jurisdictions. These <br />"patients" have most often turned out to be young adults who are not sick at all, but have secured a <br />physician's written recommendation for marijuana use by simply paying the required fee demanded <br />for this document without even first undergoing a physical examination. Too often "medical <br />marijuana" has been used as a smokescreen for those who want to legalize it and profit off it, and <br />storefront dispensaries established as cover for selling an illegal substance for a lucrative return. <br />© 2009 California Police Chiefs Assn. Vi All Rights Reserved <br />65A-61