[420 Girl]

A one-stop pot complex is beginning to form on a Sausalito street as city officials try to figure out how to address the businesses in the business of medical marijuana distribution.

The city's moratorium on marijuana dispensaries was challenged by Gate Five Caregivers, which opened in September 2008, but then closed months later.

Last month the Caregiver Compassion Group opened at 495 Gate Five Road, even though city officials said it was denied a permit.

On the front of the building an 8-by-11-inch signs read: "Medical Cannabis Patients, Medicine Has Arrived (again.)"

Caregiver Compassion Group co-president Berta Bollinger acknowledged she does not have city permits to operate, but she said she views medical marijuana as a civil rights issue.

"It's just sick people who are trying to get their medicine," said Bollinger, who called her business is a nonprofit operation. "We run a tight ship here. People need to have their doctor's notes."

The facility has its own security, burglar alarms, security cameras and night patrols.

City officials, however, said the business does not have the proper permits to operate, and they are in the process of sending it a letter asking it to come into compliance or face fines beginning at $100 that get progressively steeper.

"They came in and inquired about a permit and were denied and then they opened up anyway," said Jeremy Graves, the city's planning director.

Because a permit violation is a civil and not a criminal
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matter, Sausalito police have little power to shut a business down unless there is illegal activity occurring.

Despite the lack of permits, Bollinger said she has been well received by law enforcement.

"They have been very respectful and wave and say 'hi.' Maybe they heard we are not messing around. We want to be an asset in our community," said Bollinger, who expects to eventually see between 500 and 750 patients a month.

Police Chief Scott Paulin said his department hasn't received complaints about the Caregiver Compassion Group, but he has concerns about medical marijuana dispensaries.

"The state law is rife with people who abuse it," he said. "Compassionate use of marijuana was the intent of the law, but for some it's a way to get recreational drugs more readily."

Two other businesses not associated with Caregiver Compassion Group are also hoping to operate in the building.

The city did grant Canna Care Cafe a permit to run an office that counsels people seeking medical marijuana, but operator Joe Tremolada of San Rafael was denied a permit to grow and distribute the drug based on the city's moratorium.

"I believe the current policy is in conflict with state law," Tremolada told the City Council last week. "I think that happened because of an unclarity in state law as well."

Tremolada also says the denial is a violation of civil rights and plans to keep pursuing the issue as he begins to get his business up and running.

"I'm not going away," he said Friday.

A third medical marijuana-related business, American Growers Exchange of Sonoma, is also interested in setting up shop at the Gate Five Road building, according to city officials.

Steven Egri, who owns the building, said he doesn't see anything wrong with them.

"It's legal, it's a state law, this is for medical purposes and I don't see anything wrong with the concept," he said. "People should be able to get medical marijuana in a safe way."

Proposition 215, approved in 1996 by 55.6 percent of California voters - and 76 percent in Marin - made it legal for patients and caregivers to possess and cultivate marijuana for medical treatment as recommended by a doctor. The federal government, however, has never recognized the legitimacy of the state law.

Last summer Attorney General Jerry Brown ordered a crackdown on medical marijuana clubs that are generating big profits. Brown also issued an 11-page directive outlining the rules such clubs must observe to be legal: they must operate as nonprofit collectives or cooperatives and pay sales tax, and they are prohibited from buying marijuana from illegal commercial growers. They must obtain their marijuana from patients or caregivers, who may grow no more than 12 immature or six mature plants.

In addition to the Sausalito dispensary, two medical marijuana dispensaries opened this summer in Corte Madera and one opened earlier this year in Novato. The Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax has operated for the past 13 years.

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