It’s High Noon for Pot Clinic in Thousand Oaks

Medicinal marijuana advocates in this affluent suburb may soon find themselves temporarily zoned out--and not because they overindulged.

The City Council on Tuesday will consider adopting an “urgency ordinance” barring “medical marijuana dispensaries” for 45 days so that city officials can study and enact new zoning regulations governing such property use.

Deputy City Atty. Jim Friedl wrote in a report to the council that there are countless issues to ponder and court cases to follow after passage of California’s 1996 medicinal marijuana initiative--such as the impact of the legal battle surrounding the Cannabis Buyers’ Club in San Francisco. A state appeals court ruled Friday that the club--which was shut down following a 1996 raid by state agents but subsequently allowed to operate by San Francisco authorities--had to close again.

The decision, which affects medicinal marijuana centers statewide, would go into effect next month, but it could be held up on appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Thousand Oaks’ ordinance, a rarely used tactic that requires a four-fifths vote, comes in response to the actions of Andrea Nagy, a 27-year-old legal secretary who last month began dispensing marijuana out of a Thousand Oaks strip mall to customers she said were ill and in need of special treatment.

Nagy said Friday she will not close down her pot prescription store--regardless of what city leaders do--because she has 28 patients who need their medicine. She said she will seek a court injunction allowing her to continue selling marijuana if city officials do not exempt her from the ordinance.

Nagy said she and some of her patients, along with experts on marijuana’s medicinal attributes, will attend Tuesday’s council meeting in an effort to convince city leaders of their legitimacy.

“I don’t care,” Nagy said of Thousand Oaks’ expected action. “It [closing down] is not an option for me, and I’m sure I’d be able to get an injunction, operating on the issue of medical necessity.”

On the grounds that she suffers chronic migraine headaches, Nagy obtained permission to smoke pot the day after the passage of Proposition 215. In September, she asked Thousand Oaks to amend its municipal code to allow distribution of medical marijuana in the city.

She agrees that officials need time to study the zoning issues resulting from Proposition 215--something cities such as San Jose and Berkeley have already done. But since she requested that Thousand Oaks do so months ago, and her pleas were unheeded until recently, she believes an exemption for her establishment is fair.

“I don’t feel it will affect me,” Nagy said. “The city attorney knows already that the county is not coming down on me. I asked them to look into this during the summer. I think this is a reasonable consideration considering the limited knowledge they have on this issue.

“But if they try to shut me down, they’re going to lose in court.”

Thousand Oaks council members have denounced the sale of marijuana in their city for any purposes. They say that’s what their constituents would want from them.