Thursday, September 4, 2008
Nature's Wellness Collective owner calls it quits after second DEA raid in five months.
By EUGENE W. FIELDS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
ORANGE – The owner of a medicinal marijuana dispensary in Orange that was raided twice in five months by federal agents has decided to close his business.
Herb Papenfuss, attorney for Nature's Wellness Collective owner Bob Adams, said Adams is tired of fighting federal and local officials. Marijuana use for medicinal purposes is legal under state law, but federally, marijuana usage for any purpose is illegal and city officials have sided with federal law.
"Bob is going to close his tents and not open up again," Papenfuss said. "He was just ahead of his time."
The dispensary has remained closed since a July 30 raid by 14 armed Drug Enforcement Administration agents. Agents seized the medicinal marijuana supply, approximately $12,000 in cash, computers, cameras, smoking pipes and the dispensary's city-issued business license.
Adams said he was frustrated because he wanted to help people like his brother, an AIDS patient who uses medicinal marijuana to relieve pain. "I'm trying to do this for the right reasons and the right way," Adams said.
Adams' decision to close his shop comes on the heels of state Attorney General Jerry Brown releasing a set of guidelines that upheld the legality of medical marijuana dispensaries that operate as non-profit cooperatives or collectives.
"That means they have to have some rules, there's a structure, they need to keep a membership list and they need to have records," Brown said in a telephone interview.
Adams said he ran his business according to state guidelines, going as far as refusing entry to people who did not have identification and dispensing free marijuana to people who could not afford to buy it.
"I'm not a criminal. I'm not a bad guy and I'm not a drug dealer," Adams said. "If I was going to deal drugs, I'd do it a lot differently than this."
Wayne Winthers, an assistant city attorney for the city of Orange, said the city disagreed: "The way I read it, it specifically differentiates between store-front dispensaries and collectives or cooperatives. From what I understand, the way that Nature's Wellness is operated, they are not operating as a collective or a cooperative."
Papenfuss said his client was singled out but local and federal officials because Nature's Wellness had attained a high profile from the media. "Bob just made too much noise," Papenfuss said.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3704 or efields@ocregister.com
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/adams-marijuana-city-2145853-medicinal-federal
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