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Cannibus Club in Tracy Closes Its Doors
Building manager asked dispensary to move out; no legal trouble involved
Mike Martinez | Inside Bay Area | 05/23/06

TRACY — The first cannibus buyers club in San Joaquin County was snuffed out before it ever got rolling.

And it's not because federal, local or state agents shut down the odorous operation on the third floor of the Opera House building in downtown Tracy.

Last Thursday — three days after it opened for business — building manager Jim Ward said he asked the owners of the West Valley Resource Co-Op to move out, and they were gone the next day. He said they didn't have a problem with it.

"Whether they had a medical need for it or not, their clientele was a little younger than I had expected," Ward said. "I just told them things weren't working out."

He said the aroma of their product spilled out of the "club."

A business license was issued to John Norton, Sean Bruett and Daniel Tapia on May 5 for the West Valley Resource Co-Op, city officials said. A phone number listed on the business license had a Los Angeles area code. A message left at the number was unreturned.

Tracy Police Capt. Mike Maciel said the operation may have been legal to operate, within state law.

"We would certainly want to ensure that they are meeting all the requirements of state law in the operation of the business and that the people acquiring marijuana are (qualified patients)," Maciel said.

"The fact they shut down is not our doing."

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215 — the Compassionate Use Act — giving the seriously ill the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes.

According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, therapeutic benefits of smoking the plant are well-documented. Marijuana provides relief from nausea, stimulates appetite and weight gain, and helps combat glaucoma, according to the organization's Web site.

The issue has turned into a legal dog fight between states and the federal government. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal laws prohibiting the use of medical marijuana remain in effect regardless of state laws that permitits use.

Phil Urie, deputy district attorney for San Joaquin County, said the dispensary, if it really was one, was the first to operate in San Joaquin County.

Even so, the way the county interprets the law, it may have also been illegal.

"Our position has always been, and continues to be, that the retail sale of marijuana, even those who have a (doctor's) recommendation, is not legal," Urie said.

"Grow your own, that's what 215 says. The whole (issue) with dispensaries was completely out of the realm of Prop. 215. ... Counties like Alameda, San Francisco and Marin, they don't have the political guts to apply the law."

According to the Tracy City Clerk's Office, nothing relating to cannabis clubs has come before the City Council in at least the last 13 years.

Mike Martinez can be reached at (209) 832-3947 or at mmartinez@trivalleyherald.com.

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Buzzby

Is it some sort of public transportation for dogs?

It's amazing to me that a periodical from the Bay Area can't get it together to spell "cannabis" correctly.

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