Pot Crack-Down Commences

Santa Barbara City Attorney Steve Wiley sent cease-and-desist letters to the owners of four medical marijuana dispensaries that he contends are operating illegally, in the same week that a City Council committee adopted tough new restrictions on medical marijuana dispensaries. And California State Assembly member Pedro Nava, now campaigning to become California’s next attorney general, dispatched a blistering letter to Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum and members of the City Council, contending that the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries “has spiraled out of control and threatens the fabric and quality of life for Santa Barbara families, as well as public safety and neighborhood integrity.”

As with everything involving medical marijuana, where there’s even a little fire, there’s a ton of smoke. Nothing is as simple as it might seem. The confusion starts with the actual number of dispensaries. Claims ranged from eight to 22 throughout the many hours of public debate that have consumed the City Council’s Ordinance Committee the past several months. Dispensary critics-of whom there are many-have routinely cited the higher figures; supporters the lower figure. But according to Santa Barbara Police Captain Armando Martel, there are only eight dispensaries now in business, and another eight possible dispensaries somewhere in the application process. “They’re vacant lots. They’re doing business as something else. They may have been a dispensary once, but not now.”

Martel said he’s routinely checking addresses of other alleged dispensaries, and that his investigators have routinely come back empty-handed. “A lot of these places have ceased to exist,” he said. “They’re vacant lots. They’re doing business as something else. They may have been a dispensary once, but not now.”