MEDICAL MARIJUANA FACILITY TO OPEN IN RIVERSIDE

Riverside's first medical marijuana collective, where patients with
doctors' recommendations can buy the drug from patients who grow it,
is set to open today, after months of preparations and delays.

The Inland Empire Health and Wellness Center Medical Marijuana
Collective is a nonprofit open only to members and not the general
public, said William Sump, the collective's general manager.

A debate still rages across California about whether local
regulations to ban marijuana dispensaries should trump the state law
that allows them. Riverside officials have said city zoning bans
medical marijuana facilities of any kind.

The Riverside collective was scheduled to open several times in the
last past months. Sump said the delays were to make sure the facility
would be operating within state law.

"I feel we have done as much as we possibly can to be compliant and
at this point, it's about access for the patients," he said, adding
that the collective's 10 attorneys think the facility is legal.

Housed in an industrial park at 647 N. Main St. amid manufacturing
businesses and self-storage facilities, the collective's reception
area looks like a medical office, with a row of chairs, a tiled floor
and a fountain.

An office contains a row of scales and green plastic pill bottles
that cultivators -- the preferred term for members who grow marijuana
- -- will use to measure and package their offerings.

People who want to join the collective must have a valid
government-issued ID and a current doctor's recommendation for
medical marijuana, and they must agree not to resell or distribute
what they buy there.

The collective now has about 150 members, Sump said, but he's not
sure how many of them might show up on opening day.

Members' products will be displayed and sold in a secured area behind
locked doors.

A cashier will handle money and distribute marijuana for the vendors,
and two security guards will be on the premises, Sump said.

Collective proponents say they've tried to work with Riverside
officials but so far they've gotten no response, except from
Councilman Paul Davis, who recently took a tour of the collective.

Davis said in a phone interview that he is keeping an open mind about
the collective, but it seems clear that city zoning doesn't allow it.
He doesn't plan to seek legal or law enforcement action against the
collective, he said.

Davis' main concern was the safety of the facility's members and
employees, and he doesn't think the security measures he saw are
adequate, he said.

The collective sits across a parking lot from the THCF Medical
Clinic, where patients can seek a doctor's recommendation for medical
marijuana. The clinic is affiliated with the collective.