MEDICAL-POT DISPENSARY ALLOWED TO OPERATE

Palm Desert's lone medical-marijuana dispensary can stay open under
an agreement reached Thursday after it was threatened with losing its
business license.

The city notified CannaHelp owner Stacy Hochanadel on Feb. 9 that it
would consider revoking his license because the operation has been
linked to criminal activity and possession of marijuana is illegal
under federal law, among other reasons.

CannaHelp opened before the city enacted a temporary ban on
dispensaries in December. But police said they were having a hard
time verifying whether people possess marijuana for medical purposes.
In one instance, a CannaHelp customer tried to sell marijuana to
teenagers, police said.

The council was scheduled to hold a revocation hearing Thursday, but
at the beginning of the meeting Mayor Jim Ferguson announced an
agreement had been reached.

Hochanadel's attorney, James Warner, said CannaHelp can continue to
operate as long as its roughly 480 patients obtain optional
county-issued ID cards. So far, about 10 percent of patients have the
cards, he said. A tentative 30-day deadline was set for CannaHelp to
comply with the new requirement, he said.

Several medical-marijuana patients held a rally at the council
chambers Thursday. Alan Layton, 53, of La Quinta said he is a
CannaHelp patient and prefers going to a dispensary than getting
marijuana on the street.

"It definitely provides an air of legitimacy," he said.

Medical marijuana is legal in California since voters passed the
Compassionate Use Act in 1996.

The law allows patients with a doctor's recommendation to transport
and use marijuana to treat symptoms of illnesses such as cancer,
glaucoma or chronic pain.