Friday, June 27, 2008

By EVE HIGHTOWER
ehightower@modbee.com

last updated: August 15, 2007 04:18:23 AM

OAKDALE — A.J. Hajjar figures that if lawmakers and police could feel the pain of three herniated disks, other lower back problems and osteoarthritis, they'd leave places like Oakdale Natural Choice Collective alone.

"I felt very safe here," the 61-year-old Tracy man said while seated in the now-empty medical marijuana dispensary that the Stanislaus County Drug Enforcement Agency and Oakdale police shut down July 31. It had been open since May 7, owner Addison DeMoura said.

Hajjar, who also has diabetes and high blood pressure, said he didn't set out to add marijuana to his list of medications. A doctor suggested it.

"I was totally comfortable with it," said Hajjar, who said he has since decreased his dependence on pharmaceutical drugs.

He'd had medical approval to use marijuana for about three weeks before the only dispen-sary he knew of in the valley closed.

On July 31, law enforcement officers arrested DeMoura and others associated with the collective at 1275 East F St. Everyone arrested has since made bail, said Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department spokesman Royjindar Singh.

Police searched the collective and confiscated an undisclosed amount of marijuana, money, records and other items. DeMoura said they also took the hemp clothing, political books, lotions and soaps that he and volunteers sold at the nonprofit business.

Law enforcement officials will not provide specifics on the evidence they seized until the case is closed, said Modesto Police Department Lt. Mike Zahr, who is handling the case for the multiagency task force called Stanislaus Drug Enforcement Agency.

Investigators started looking into the case after complaints about a strong odor coming from the collective. There also were complaints regarding the clientele.

DeMoura opened the shop as a natural therapeutic products business, according to his business license, and said that is all the collective was. The license did not specifically state that the collective would sell marijuana.

"This dispensary was run so professionally. We made sure patients were comfortable. We gave out water. We had chairs for people who couldn't stand in line. I know what we were doing was the right thing," he said.

Since law enforcement shut the dispensary, Hajjar said he will have to go to Oakland to get marijuana if he wants to continue using it. He said he won't buy it on the street. Marijuana supplied at a collective is safer because those who use it also grow and provide it, DeMoura said.

State law allows approved medical marijuana users to have up to six mature or 12 immature plants. Pooling resources helps ensure everyone in a collective has enough.

It also allows patients to try different varieties. Just like patients sometimes need to have their pharmaceutical drugs adjusted, marijuana users need to adjust the strength of tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive substance in cannabis, DeMoura said.

"I can't drive to Oakland. It's too expensive and the long drive is painful," said Deborah Pottle, 53, of Oakdale, who has tried a gamut of pain medication since a back injury 13 years ago.

"I blew three disks and ruptured one," the former correctional officer said. "I'm limited strictly to this because I developed allergies to those drugs."

Pottle said her relationship with her daughters suffered when she began trying various painkillers.

"With medical marijuana, I function," she said. "Without it I have no quality of life."

Pottle said she smokes the drug and eats it in cereal-bar-looking "edibles."

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