San Jose officials plan enforcement push against dispensaries

By John Woolfolk

San Jose is yanking the welcome mat for medical marijuana dispensaries that have proliferated across the city in recent months, according to this story in the San Jose Mercury News.

With San Jose, which had no known dispensaries a year ago, now perhaps home to as many as San Francisco — and more than four times as many as Santa Cruz — code enforcement officials have begun telling owners their operations are illegal under city law.

“We’ve started to receive some complaints, and we’re currently doing investigations on a number of these,” said Mike Hannon, the city’s code enforcement official. “If it looks as though they’re operating as dispensaries, we’re going to advise the owners to shut the dispensaries.”

Pot clubs have proliferated in San Jose since City Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio, alarmed by their rapid spread in other places, last fall suggested legalizing and taxing a limited number of them.

Some fledgling clubs have filed business-tax paperwork with the city that makes no mention of marijuana — describing the operations vaguely as counseling, retail or health services, the Mercury News’ John Woolfolk reports.

Hannon is sending letters to the dispensaries he and his staff have confirmed are operating, notifying them they must close in 30 days. The dispensaries’ landlords could face fines up to $2,500 a day if the outlets remain open after that deadline.

Andy Schwaderer, who operates the Pharmers Health Center dispensary off De Anza Boulevard, says he’s optimistic the nonprofit cooperative can work things out with the city and avoid litigation.

Though Hannon told him during a recent inspection that the dispensary is illegal, Schwaderer believes state law is on their side.

“We’re eager to work with the city and establish a good relationship,” said Schwaderer, who opened his doors last month. “We will wait and respond accordingly to whatever the city has to say.”

Voters in 1996 made California the first state in the nation to legalize medicinal use of marijuana for those with a doctor’s recommendation, but the move has been mired in legal uncertainty ever since.

Superseding federal law continues to outlaw the drug as a dangerous narcotic, although the U.S. attorney general last year stated that federal drug agents won’t bust those who comply with state medical marijuana laws.

Dispensaries have proliferated in California since then. That in turn has sparked a backlash among local officials seeking to limit their number or ban them outright.

Three dozen cities, including Santa Clara, have joined in support of Anaheim’s court battle in a closely watched case over the right to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. A patients’ group had challenged the Anaheim ban as a violation of state law, and an appellate court is expected to rule sometime in the spring.