Santa Monica Pot Dispensary to Go Before Council

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Pot Dispensary to Go Before Council

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

February 13 -- With more and more pot dispensaries popping up around Los
Angeles, the question of whether Santa Monica will be hip to marijuana
clubs will be placed squarely before the City Council Tuesday night.

Sensing local attitudes towards medical marijuana may be changing,
23-year-old Nathan Hamilton said he and a partner invested nearly
$14,000 in the past two months to rent a space for a dispensary on Main
Street and Pacific Avenue in the heart of the progressive Ocean Park
neighborhood.

"Right now, people have to drive miles away to get their medicine," said
Hamilton, an Agora Hills resident. "They should be able to get it right
here in Santa Monica.

"This is not a drug operation," he said. "This is dispensing medicine to
people who use it as a drug to help with everything from chronic pain to
chemotherapy."

After jumping through a series of legal and bureaucratic hoops -- from
the County to the State to the Internal Revenue Service -- Hamilton will
be asking the council to approve what would be Santa Monica's first
marijuana dispensary.

"All I need now is for the City to approve my business license,"
Hamilton said.

That might be easier said than done in Santa Monica, which, despite its
liberal reputation, has been one of the least tolerant municipalities
when it comes to allowing medical marijuana dispensaries inside the
city's borders.

Mayor Richard Bloom -- who admittedly does not know much about the
clinics -- said he is undecided on the issue, but would ask staff to
return with more information.

"I suspect we'll just kick it back to staff," he said Monday.

Since 56 percent of California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996
allowing the sale of marijuana to patients with a prescription, cities
from San Francisco to Santa Cruz and Los Angeles have allowed clubs to
operate within their boundaries.

For Santa Monica to join the list, Hamilton will need to convince the
council to change the local zoning code, since, for years, City
officials have denied business permits on the grounds that the proposed
use is not explicitly allowed.

"It's not a permitted use anywhere in Santa Monica," said Paul Foley, a
principal planner for the City.

Planners have received inquiries on the matter for a decade, Foley said.

"If the City Council wanted to change that, they would ask us to draft
an ordinance to add it to the code," he said.

As for the proposed dispensary's impact on the neighborhood, the
Planning Department must first determine if neighboring cities are
offering the service, he said..

"We just don't know," Foley said.

Former Council member Michael Feinstein, who served on the Ocean Park
neighborhood group's Main Street advisory committee in 1989-90, thinks
the dispensary would pose no problem to a shopping strip that includes
retro boutiques and a new vegetarian restaurant.

"Clearly we have an eclectic neighborhood, and this would be another
added use that would fit in," said Feinstein, a Green Party member who
served two terms on the council. "If the council approves the zoning, it
would create quite a buzz on the street."

While local law enforcement may have expressed concerns about
dispensaries in the past, there are indications that times are changing.

Today, such a clinic need not to worry about being raided by Santa
Monica police, said police department officials.

"As long as the business has its license, the police department would
not treat it differently than any other business," said Captain Wendell
Smile, who oversees the Office of Special Enforcement, which includes
the narcotics section.

Police Chief Tim Jackman -- who took over in December -- has said he
would abide by Proposition U, a law passed by local voters last November
that makes marijuana "the lowest enforcement priority" for local police.

"We will not sit here and plan operations and go after everyone that
smokes marijuana in their living room," Jackman said in an interview
last month. "We don't have time for that.

"If you are talking about marijuana for sale or to kids, we take those
kinds of things very seriously," he said. "But for individual use or
possession, if we find it, we'll take actionŠ but other than that, it's
not going to be a big deal for us."

Such a stance is dramatic departure from the position taken by former
Chief James T. Butts, Jr., who indicated he would ignore proposition U
-- which passed with 65 percent of the vote -- and actively campaigned
against the measure.

Hamilton said he chose Santa Monica not only because of the absence of
clinics, but because Proposition U passed with such an overwhelming
majority.

"To be perfectly honest, all the proposition did was give me
encouragement," he said.

Yet the clinics may face pressure from Federal law enforcement.

Last month Federal authorities raided 11 such clinics in Los Angeles
County after LA Police Chief William Bratton testified that the number
of dispensaries had jumped from four in November 2005 to 98 a year later
and that tougher regulations of clinics are needed.

While there may be opposition to his proposed business, Hamilton
believes the fears that his dispensary would encourage illegal
activities are unfounded.

"I don't believe this would increase crime," he said. "I think it would
make it even less because what it would do is take away one more product
from illegal drug dealers."

The business would abide by any and all laws, including the mandatory
installation of 24-hour-survellience and a security guard, Hamilton said.

Meanwhile, Hamilton plans to follow through on his and his 19-year-old
partner's investment -- $3,500 a month for rent.

"This is a natural supplement here on Earth," he said. "We should be
able to take advantage of it."
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