As the City of Long Beach debates the merits of wading into the tricky waters of regulating and perhaps prosecuting dispensaries and other businesses that provide medical marijuana, City Prosecutor Tom Reeves issued an opinion-editorial to the staging-live.lbpost.com that essentially amounts to kicking in the door with guns blazing. Reeves directly relates dispensaries to “a drug dealer standing on a corner” and disputes the notion of the businesses as caregivers. The Long Beach City Council spent two hours at last week’s meeting trying to discern the pros and cons of regulations dispensaries but made no decision. The City of Los Angeles last week was hit with a lawsuit based on a moratorium of over-the-counter medical marijuana sales.

Click here to read staging-live.lbpost.com columnist Greggory Moore’s recent take on the issue of medical marijuana dispensaries in Long Beach.

The op-ed, as provided to us in full, is below:

Medical Dispensary or Dope Dealer?
by Tom Reeves
Long Beach City Prosecutor

When I write about a medical marijuana dispensary, I mean a store front or residence where the following transactions take place: A qualified patient goes to the dispensary counter; shows the operator his or her “doctor’s recommendation” for marijuana; signs a “caregiver” designation form; makes a “donation” equal to the marijuana “price”; and then leaves with the marijuana. I call this transaction an “over-the-counter” sale.

Now imagine a drug dealer standing on a corner – no store front – no countertop – just a backpack full of weed, a pocket full of money and a clip board with caregiver designation forms.

Now ask yourself – What’s the difference?

My answer – No Difference! They are both dope dealers.

“So how are dispensaries getting away with it?” – Well that takes some explaining.

First, let me try to explain how California can have “medical marijuana” when the feds outlaw marijuana (Federal Controlled Substances Act; 21 United States Code 811). The California Compassionate Use Act (CUA) didn’t legalize marijuana. It is still a felony to grow it or sell it. However, as a sovereign state, California can choose how it will enforce or apply its criminal laws. Under the CUA, patients and caregivers were given immunity for certain marijuana offenses.

Next, why did it take from 1996 till 2008 to come to the conclusion that medical marijuana dispensary operations are illegal? Well the 1996 implementation of the CUA created a patch work of conflicting local laws. It was so confused that in 2003 the Legislature passed the Medical Marijuana Program Act (MMPA) to “clarify” the CUA.

The MMPA created new issues because it allowed caregivers to be compensated for “actual expenses for services provided”. Now can you see why dispensary operators require patients to sign a form designing the dispensary their “caregiver”.

On November 24, 2008 the Supreme Court decided People v. Mentch and it dramatically changed the legal landscape for designating dispensaries as caregivers!

For example, a dispensary operator can now be charged with felony sales if an undercover investigator goes into a dispensary posing as a patient and engages in an “over-the-counter” sale. Before Mentch, a dispensary operator could point to the signed “caregiver designation” and get a jury instruction on immunity for caregivers. After Mentch that dispensary operator will have to prove:

That the dispensary operator consistently (over a period of time) engaged in activities relating to the undercover officer’s housing, health, or safety (caregiving); and

That the care provided to the undercover officer was more than just supplying marijuana; and

That the caregiver relationship with the undercover officer existed before the sale of marijuana.

Take a look at some of the newspaper ads that dispensaries are running. They are offering “free samples”, discount prices and free delivery. Come on in – sit right down – try the dope – dig the prices – free delivery! Now that’s just dope dealing not caregiving!

So ask yourself again, “Medical Dispensary or Dope Dealer?”

Click here to read Greggory Moore’s column in response.

Disclosure: The staging-live.lbpost.com has sponsorship relationships with medical marijuana dispensaries.

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