Gilroy would be wise to rethink medipot strategy

Tucked away in the corner of a strip mall on Gilroy’s west side, near a dance studio and a martial arts center, is a storefront clinic called MediLeaf, a medical marijuana dispensary with a small cannabis leaf on its sign.

On a wallboard inside is the message, “To love oneself is a long romance.” Under that is the practical admonition, “We accept credit cards.”

Since it opened without a business license three months ago, MediLeaf has caused an uproar in a town still smarting over the death of a 15-year-old girl after a night of drinking. As opponents see it, MediLeaf is a mecca for potheads, criminals and other bad actors.

In many ways, the legal battle now unfolding offers a peek at what’s likely to happen in San Jose and other towns that are confronting objections to marijuana dispensaries. If Gilroy offers a lesson, it’s this: A full-out fight isn’t worth it.

Almost all decisions in local politics turn on choice. You spend here, you scrimp there. In a town that has had to lay off employees in the police department, the decision to press a dubious legal case that could cost $300,000 or more doesn’t hold water.

Here’s a short version of the saga: Back in 1996, voters approved Proposition 215, which allowed for the sale of medical marijuana. Under President George W. Bush, the feds frowned on such sales and raided dispensaries.

Last October, however, the Obama administration’s attorney general, Eric Holder, said patients who use medical marijuana with state blessing will not face federal prosecution. And that has ushered in a thriving subculture of marijuana clinics.

NIMBY issues

MediLeaf says it negotiated with Gilroy officials for months and ran into the standard not-in-my-backyard problems. Finally, contending that it did not need a business license as a collective, MediLeaf opened on Nov. 9 near First Street and Westwood Drive.

A week later, in a closed session, the City Council authorized the city’s law firm to begin legal action against MediLeaf. Three council members boycotted the meeting, saying certain issues should be discussed openly.

Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy agreed that the city’s action transgressed the state’s open-meeting laws, and he denied a preliminary injunction that could have closed MediLeaf down immediately. A legal war of the trenches has ensued.

Some people in Gilroy, led by Councilman Perry Woodward, think the city didn’t get very good advice from its law firm, which has defended the closed session. Woodward has pushed for a cap on legal fees. Others feel strongly that the city should spend whatever it takes.

No crime wave

My point here, however, isn’t to make a judgment on legal strategy. Nor am I passing judgment on medical marijuana. I know it helps some people. I’m just as aware that it isn’t very hard to get one of those notes from a doctor.

Nor am I against reasonable land-use controls. But I haven’t seen any evidence that MediLeaf contributes to a wave of teenage narcotics use. Given that other medical marijuana collectives are delivering in Gilroy, I think we’re dealing with a modern-day Prohibition. We all know how well that turned out.

“For me, the potential of spending $300,000 to $600,000 to shut down this one dispensary, when we’re not going to get closure, is not good fiscal policy,” says Woodward. And while his words are cautious, the point is clear: Drop it.