[420 Girl]

Richard Norris, 36, wants to create a non-profit marijuana dispensary in Manteca saying he can bring in funds for police, fire, and the small businesses he sees struggling in the down economy.

Norris promises to be at the Manteca City Council meeting tonight to make his pitch in the three-minute time frame members of the public are allotted when they are not listed on the agenda. He said he is continuing to use that format to get the council members to see his side of the issue.

The former construction worker, who says he was injured in the building of the Kaiser Hospital in Modesto, also wants to establish a cannabis nursery, but claims no one will sponsor him to be on the council agenda. Any council member can sponsor a citizen who wants a specific action item brought before the council as a whole for possible action.

He said he believes there are more than 2,000 medical marijuana card holders in the area who would patronize a dispensary and a nursery if it were in Manteca bringing in millions of dollars.

Under California law, individual jurisdictions can allow pot dispensaries for medicinal purposes.

“I’ve been out of work four years and on disability for three years – had a stroke and have no money,” Norris said. He added that if he had a small nursery he could put a lot of people to work and keep some from losing their homes.

Norris is calling for a rally in a city park that would bring people together and “to bring them out of the closet,” saying that since he has used marijuana for the last six months he has quit using some 17 prescriptions. He says that council members and other city officials have turned deaf ears toward him.

Manteca Police Chief Dave Bricker said in his research he has only seen that marijuana has no analgesic affect on pain. It has often been reported to help with nausea that keeps patients from eating, however.

“The council still sees this as a violation of federal law,” the chief said.

He quoted California Attorney General Jerry Brown as saying every marijuana dispensary in the state is operating outside the law.

Bricker said there is no way someone could operate a non-profit dispensary and give the profits to a community, its fire department or police department to help defray costs. Once the profit is turned, it is no longer a “non-profit” and is in violation of the law, he said.

He also noted that marijuana collaborative may only sell to its members and such a group must have some medical responsibility for those they are supporting in their demands.

“Unfortunately for the users, it stays in the system for 45 days,” Bricker said.

He said that most of the people who acquire cards as from the Cannabis Coalition in Oakland must stay within the collaborative. And those collaboratives don’t have to keep records as to who they issued cards, the chief said.

Bricker said since marijuana is not recognized under federal law to be a medication, physicians can’t issue prescriptions. They can only offer a suggestion that a patient use it – often writing the suggestion on nothing more than a napkin. There is no organized process, he said.


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