PALM DESERT REACHES UNEASY TRUCE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS

Marijuana Advocates, City Officials Wrestle 'Head-On' With Issue

There were a few tense moments Tuesday at a meeting between medical
marijuana advocates and Palm Desert city officials wrestling with
how to implement California's medical marijuana laws.

But by the end of the hour-and-a-half session, Lt. Steve Thetford,
assistant chief of police, was exchanging phone numbers with Stacy
Hochanadel, owner of CannaHelp, a medical marijuana dispensary on El
Paseo, and an uneasy middle ground had been reached.

"I feel we're going to have a lot more communication," said
Hochanadel, whose dispensary, licensed by the city last October, has
become a flash point for police and city officials concerned about
how to verify that buyers are valid medical marijuana patients.

California's medical marijuana law "is meant to help patients, not
foster drug dependency," said Mayor Jim Ferguson, opening the
meeting that drew about a dozen people, including Hochanadel,
Thetford and Riverside County Undersheriff Neil D. Lingle.

"We're choosing to address the issue head-on," Ferguson said.

The main point of contention is how to verify the identity of
individuals with a valid need for buying and using medical marijuana.

Under California state law, patients are supposed to have a doctor's
letter of recommendation. They can also get a voluntary state-issued
identification card, which costs $100, or $50 for Medi-Cal patients.

Riverside County began issuing the cards Dec. 1, but most people
still do not have them.

But Thetford said the letters of recommendation most people do have
are difficult to verify, especially during off hours, evenings or
weekends, when doctors can be hard to reach.

"If we had a card (that) we could call and verify, it would make it
a moot point," he said.

Verification problems recently resulted in Palm Desert police
confiscating medical marijuana from about six CannaHelp clients,
Thetford said.

Ferguson called the meeting after advocates complained about the
confiscations. The city recently passed a moratorium on dispensaries
for 45 days to allow the city to come up with its own ordinance on
how to regulate them.

CannaHelp, which was already licensed, was grandfathered in.

In the meantime, both sides agree, the key to defusing further
tensions is for more people to get the ID cards.

"What I tell people now is that if you want to be 100 percent sure
you're not going to get arrested, you better have the card," said
Lanny Swerdlow of Palm Springs, director of the Marijuana
Anti-Prohibition Project, a patients' advocacy group.

"Under state law, it's the best."

Hochanadel is also encouraging his clients to get the IDs, giving
out applications at the dispensary. Lingle and Thetford also said
the police would judge patients' documentation on a case-by-case basis.

"We have to follow the law," Lingle said. "We don't have to agree
with the law or like the law."

"We want to be fair."