Mayor Richard Ortiz said Tuesday that a one-year moratorium would buy time for the city while courts resolve apparent conflicts between state and federal marijuana laws.

In a four to one vote, the City Council has voted to expand it's moratorium on pot dispensaries by one year. That means the city can take its time to consider regulations while the legal system sorts out cases in other communities.

At their meeting Tuesday night, Mountain View City Council members voted to ban pot clubs for now, but they made it clear they intend to eventually allow them after city officials develop some restrictions.

"There is an interest in making this available — medical marijuana — for those that need it, absolutely," Council Member Laura Macias said. "We just want to make it safe and affordable."

"I was very clear in the lease with regards to if I get any scrutiny from the city and if you [Purple Cross] can't defend yourself, then I'm going to take action to get you out," said Greg Dolan, who owns the building at 335 San Benito St., located between Third and Fourth streets. "From their perspective, they put an awful lot of money into this. They have to leave, and I think they're dragging it out."

The budding entrepreneur, who offers a selection of marijuana topical creams, pot cookies and green, leafy plants, envisions a thriving collaborative where local growers can make a living serving the medical needs of the community.

In addition to MediLeaf, which opened at First Street and Westwood Drive on Nov. 9 without a permit, online medical cannabis directories reveal that multiple medical marijuana services do business in Gilroy, including at least three that are based within city limits and do not have business licenses. While the purveyors of these dispensaries said they do no need licenses to operate within the city, Gilroy staff and officials said this is incorrect.

In a letter to the dispensary's operators, the city said that "unfortunately, the information you provided on your application and to the Planning Division was not complete. The city learned through your recent interviews with the media that your business is actually operating as a medical marijuana dispensary. You withheld this critical piece of information from the city."

The cooperative is obligated to get a city business license if it has a physical location in Capitola and earns more than $2,000 a year, said City Attorney John Barisone, adding, "If it's in L.A., we don't care."

Capitola Cannabis has a Web site where verified medical marijuana patients can apply for membership and take advantage of free delivery service of organic medical cannabis. Patients pay for the marijuana.

The outfit is obligated to get a city business license if it has a physical location in Capitola and earns more than $2,000 a year, said Barisone, adding, "If it's in LA, we don't care."

Capitola Cannabis is a cooperative with a Web site where verified medical marijuana patients can apply for membership and take advantage of free delivery service of organic medical cannabis.

Y2K proved to be nothing.

But the past 10 years still gave us lots of sleepless nights. It turned out to be a decade of worry.

America became vulnerable to a group of Middle Eastern terrorists armed with box cutters, delivering the country's most devastating blow since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

We learned that what goes up, not only comes down, but can come down with a thundering boom. Home prices, stock portfolios and the number of job openings all dropped precipitously.

MediLeaf directors embraced and heaved sighs of relief Tuesday after a Santa Clara County superior court judge ruled that the medical marijuana dispensary in Gilroy will remain open for now.

"We're alive," MediLeaf director Neil Forrest told the Dispatch minutes after the hearing, his voice shaking slightly after the Judge Kevin Murphy voiced his decision.

Murphy shut the door on the city's first legal attempt to close down MediLeaf, which opened at 1321-B First St. last month between Rock Zone and Antdawg Universal Strength Headquarters at First Street and Westwood Drive without a business license.

Goyko Kuburovich, 49, who owns MediLeaf, said he was cited twice for allegedly not complying with an inspection warrant.

To date, the city has no licensed production houses. Current regulations require that in order to obtain a permit for a medical marijuana production house one must have a medical marijuana dispensary permit and that the production house must be at a location separate from the dispensary.

On Thursday, November 19, 2009, the Santa Cruz Planning Commission will hear testimony and discuss the medical marijuana dispensary ban. This will have drastic impacts on patients in Santa Cruz.

But Mayor Chuck Reed warned Wednesday that they remain illegal under current city law and that any that open are doing so at their own risk. A committee Reed leads that sets council agendas considered Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio's proposal to regulate and tax marijuana dispensaries. City officials said they would return to the committee in January to lay out the steps needed to craft such an ordinance.

That's why it's puzzling to us that two county supervisors Tuesday opposed asking for state financial help in rooting out illegal marijuana grows.

The supervisors, Neal Coonerty and John Leopold, believe it's a waste of time and money to use law enforcement resources on marijuana cases. Their opposition did not stop the other three supervisors from requesting the $275,000 state grant, which, if the county lands the money in competition with other counties, would allow an additional officer on the Sheriff's Office narcotics enforcement team, along with a part-time prosecutor who would attempt to put large-scale growers behind bars.

The dispensary claims its a nonprofit, so it doesn't need to get city approval to operate.

Gilroy officials disagree, and are issuing the dispensary a "cease and desist" order this week.

City Manager Tom Haglund said Tuesday evening that he expected a cease and desist order to be issued against MediLeaf - a medical marijuana dispensary that popped up Monday night at 1321 First St. without the city's permission - within 24 hours.

Two of the five county supervisors, who must sign off on monetary requests, voted Tuesday against the sheriff's funding plan, citing the enforcement of marijuana laws as a low priority and almost dooming prospects of the new crime-fighting funds.

Legislation the Carmel Democrat plans to introduce this week, the Truth in Trials Act, seeks to commit the president's directive to law by making it tougher to prosecute people who smoke or sell pot for medical reasons in states where it is legal. In California and 13 other states, local laws permit the drug, though federal law bans it.

"This (directive of the president) isn't an executive order. It's not law, and it could change with a new attorney general or a new president," said Farr, who represents most of Santa Cruz County. "Our bill would codify this (directive)."

Valerie Corral, co-founder of WAMM, a nonprofit collective for seriously ill medical marijuana patients, told council members Tuesday that patients needed a spot to smoke if necessary at Saturday's celebration of medical marijuana. She said the group would erect tents near the sidewalk for patients with prescriptions to smoke privately during the annual celebration in San Lorenzo Park.

The city currently has 2 dispensaries, WAMM and no licensed grow houses. In order to open a production house one must first have a dispensary operating in the city.

Weedmaps is a founder of The Dispensary Defense Group, headed by Richard Cowan, former Director of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

But one entrepreneur, who hopes to open a shop on Mission Street, wondered if the extension instead would drain city resources and dampen Santa Cruz's full tourism potential.

In 1995 she was a buyer for The San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club. After The Club was raided in 1996 and patients were being robbed and beaten as they returned to the streets to obtain medicine, she started a delivery service in her 1984 Saab (with no reverse) and a donated pager. It was named Compassion On Wheels and affectionately known as The Holy COW.

But there she is, the star of a controversial television advertisement from the Marijuana Policy Project — stumping for the legalization and taxing of pot in California.

The plants had a potential street value of $6.5 million, officials from the San Benito County Sherriff's Office said.

There are two existing dispensaries currently operating in the Harvey West area of Santa Cruz. However, local medical marijuana patient Craig Canada reports that he buys his medication from dispensaries in San Francisco where the prices are more competitive. Proponents of medical marijuana hope that additional dispensaries in Santa Cruz will result in more affordable prices locally.

Lisa Molyneux, owner of Greenway Compassionate Relief Inc. in Harvey West, should ask the city's planning commission on Thursday to approve plans for a new, 430-square foot commercial kitchen so the dispensary's two pastry chefs can bake brownies, cookies and truffles in a controlled space next to the shop. Now, the two chefs are using other commercial kitchens around town which Molyneux said she can't control as tightly as if she had her own.

The ruling upholds a Santa Cruz County Superior Court jury decision that found medicinal marijuana user Roger Mentch, 53, guilty of cultivating and possessing marijuana for sale.

The ruling upholds a Santa Cruz County Superior Court jury decision that found medicinal marijuana user Roger Mentch, 53, guilty of cultivating and possessing marijuana for sale.

The city's smoking ban is being lifted temporarily so medical pot patients can light up at a weekend marijuana festival.

The City Council decided to suspend the smoking ban for a few hours Saturday after medical marijuana patients pleaded for permission to light up at the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana festival at San Lorenzo Park.

The decision came after testimony from more than 20 patients who reasoned and pleaded with the Santa Cruz City Council to allow them to inhale their medication while partaking in Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana's annual WAMMfest. Some accused council members of growing old and more conservative, while others said Santa Cruz was losing both its compassion and its weirdness.

The Santa Cruz City Council, so far, says no and we agree.

Here's the reasons why.

The one-day exemption would allow medical marijuana patients to light up during the annual Wamm Festival at San Lorenzo Park at the end of the month, but city council members have tabled the issue for another two weeks.

"It's not like a recreational marijuana event," said Councilman Mike Rotkin, who supports the temporary lifting of the city's 3-year-old ordinance that bans smoking in parks.

Several complaints from neighbors led to the execution of a search warrant, which turned up about 67 pounds of marijuana and a marijuana grow system with fans, special lighting, filter systems and a watering system.

WAMM co-founder Valerie Corral called the ruling "hopeful." WAMM had its medical marijuana seized by federal agents in a 2002 raid.

The fire was reported around 8:40 p.m. at 15707 Highland Drive at Alta Vista Way in unincorporated Santa Clara County. Firefighters were able to contain the fire by about 9:30 p.m. but officials said the residents would likely be displaced because walls were torn down during the suppression.

Farr, who is seeking his ninth term in the House of Representatives in the November election, lists among his contributors medical marijuana advocates, a national Realtors group, one of Monterey County's leading slow-growth voices and a Salinas attorney from a firm that often represents real estate developers.

Maldonado, 20, was shot and killed by deputies July 10 as they attempted to secure a marijuana plot targeted for eradication.

Two other armed suspects fled the area and remain at large. They are described as men in their mid-20s.

Wednesday, the sheriff's office reported that eradication efforts at the pot farm are finished. Lt. Ed Wise said about 40,000 plants were destroyed Tuesday, including 28,352 plants found in one of the three pot gardens.

Sheriff's officials estimate each plant, when mature, could have an estimated street value of $3,000 or a maximum of about $116 million for the 40,000 plants.

Members of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, which is comprised of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, had entered a large garden last Thursday when they encountered three armed suspects. At least one sheriff's deputy opened fire and one suspect, whose identity has not been released, was fatally shot, according to the sheriff's office.

Two Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation, said Lt. Ed Wise, a sheriff's department spokesman. The deputies' names have not been released.

Trujillo reported that one person died and two other people were on the run. Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies said they were searching for two Hispanic men in their 20s who fled after being in involved in the shooting.

First, the profitability and feasibility of illegal pot cultivation has been generally immune to swings in the economy, with growers exhibiting enough ingenuity to exploit both good and bad housing markets.

A DEA spokesperson could not comment on details of the warrant served at 3333 Telegraph, near 35th Street, where a sign out front reads "Digitized Medical Records," except to say it was part of an ongoing narcotics investigation.

When firefighters responded to a report of smoke coming from an attic of the house Tuesday evening, they found marijuana plants growing throughout the three-bedroom residential home.

Authorities say there were nearly 200 marijuana plants, with an estimated street value of up to $1 million in the house.

The blaze was first reported as an attic fire at 6:40 p.m. at 2318 Shade Tree Lane and a second alarm was quickly called, Stallard said.

Police say after officers arrived at a home in central San Jose Saturday morning, they forced their way in because they thought there was a shooting victim inside.

Officers didn't find anyone inside the home, but they did find about 500 marijuana plants.

“I took that community support for granted,” she said. “ I was very fortunate to have that kind of childhood.”

That changed Tuesday, when the board of supervisors cut those fees in half - a move praised by "compassionate medicine" advocates and public health officials alike.

Beginning today, qualified county residents will be charged $150 for cards granting them immunity and the freedom to carry their medicine without police harassment.

Then one day she learned that the busy corridor in front of her business was slated for an overhaul. And Caltrans, the state agency responsible for the project -- which normally builds highways, not city streets -- wasn't going to maintain pedestrian crosswalks during the road work and planned to cut down trees and put up soundwalls.

The cost for a medical marijuana identification card will be reduced to $150 from $294 starting this month until April 2009. At the end of the pilot program term, the public health department will conduct a participation level review to determine if the lowered fee resulted in increased participation.

In the warm spring sunshine, scores of people hiked up Empire Grade or found hidden paths to the meadow, trekking like glassy-eyed pilgrims on a journey to their promised land. April 20, known as 4/20, is a day of celebration in cannabis culture.

According to a memo sent to faculty and staff Thursday by Executive Vice Chancellor David S. Kliger, UCSC will take numerous measures to block unauthorized vehicles from entering campus and parking, as well as parking along Empire Grade, the 1.2 mile stretch between the main and west gates. Students also will not be allowed to have overnight guests tonight or Saturday.

The Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to make the switch from county to state cards for patients starting April 21. This carries important implications for medical marijuana users, extending the protection they receive in the county to almost everywhere in the state.

With the added protection will come a rise in cost, which worries supporters of the state card and medicinal-marijuana advocates.

But the California State Athletic Commission has refused to license him for the fight. And the reason, according to EliteXC President Gary Shaw, is that Diaz has a prescription for medical marijuana. His manager Cesar Gracie says Diaz uses marijuana to combat attention deficit disorder:

Five years after the county established its own identification card program for people who use medical marijuana, local health officials want to begin issuing state cards.

"Our cards legally are only binding in Santa Cruz," said Rama Khalsa, director of the county Health Services Agency. "People do travel outside of Santa Cruz and felt it was important to have the state program."

The county's card costs $35 and more than 1,600 of them have been issued since the program was launched in August 2003. Those cards were valid for three years.

A worker at GreenTeam's recycling center on Charles Street found an entirely different type of green while sorting through refuse Friday, police said - a garbage bag with 5 pounds of marijuana.

Police estimated the value of the marijuana at between $1,500 and $3,750, depending on the quality.

Too often dispensaries are a gateway for people with questionable medical ailments to obtain marijuana and then sell it on the streets, supervisors said.

"While I am empathetic to patients with serious and terminal illness, the marijuana dispensaries have attracted both criminal and nuisance problems to the communities where they operate," said Supervisor Mary Piepho of Discovery Bay.

While federal law prohibits the sale and use of marijuana, state law allows its sale and use for medical purposes since 1996.

The bondsman - who police did not identify - on Tuesday night was trying to track down someone who skipped out on bail when he thought he spied marijuana plants growing inside a home where he believed the suspect once lived.

He called police at around 10:30 p.m. to report his find. When officers pulled up to the home on the 5300 block of Fraschini Circle, they said could smell marijuana from outside the house, officer Jermaine Thomas said.

In an effort to overcome the obstacles raised in the raid tactics the DEA employed in earlier attempts to circumvent a compassionate community of medical cannabis connoisseurs, the feds have resorted to sending letters to landlords who rent commercial space to medical cannabis providers, first in Southern California back in July and more recently here in the Bay area. Landlords who own space occupied by medical cannabis dispensaries in Marin, San Francisco, and Alameda counties received letters the second week in December.

The chopper flew sheriff's deputies and State Fish and Game crews to grow sites contaminated with pesticides. The chemicals used by pot growers are washing into streams and rivers, according to Lt. John Nores with Fish and Game.

In recent weeks, DEA agents have sent letters to their landlords warning them of jail time, stiff fines and even forfeiture of their property if landlords allow tenants to peddle pot.

The letters have "definitely caused a panic," said Nathan Sands, a spokesman for the Compassionate Coalition, a medical marijuana education group.

Sacramento-based agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have sent nearly a dozen letters out in the last month to dispensaries' landlords in the latest effort against medical marijuana.

However, medical marijuana advocates - who saw about 200 DEA letters roll out near Los Angeles this summer - say federal officials are being too heavy-handed against something California voters approved a decade ago.