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cash and handguns. Investigating officers counted 109 marijuana plants in various phases of <br />cultivation inside the house, along with two digital scales and just under 4 pounds of cultivated <br />marijuana. 40 <br />More recently in Colorado, Ken Gorman, a former gubernatorial candidate and dispenser of <br />marijuana who had been previously robbed over twelve times at his home in Denver, was found <br />murdered by gunshot inside his home. He was a prominent proponent of medical marijuana and the <br />legalization of marijuana. <br />B. BURGLARIES <br />In June of 2007, after two burglarizing youths in Bellflower, California were caught by the <br />homeowner trying to steal the fruits of his indoor marijuana grow, he shot one who was running <br />away, and killed him. And, again in January of 2007, Claremont Councilman Corey Calaycay <br />went on record calling marijuana dispensaries "crime magnets" after a burglary occurred in one in <br />Claremont, California. <br />On July 17, 2006, the El Cerrito City Council voted to ban all such marijuana facilities. It did so <br />after reviewing a nineteen -page report that detailed a rise in crime near these storefront dispensaries <br />in other cities. The crimes included robberies, assaults, burglaries, murders, and attempted <br />murders .44 Even though marijuana storefront businesses do not currently exist in the City of <br />Monterey Park, California, it issued a moratorium on them after studying the issue in August of <br />2006. After allowing these establishments to operate within its borders, the City of West <br />Hollywood, California passed a similar moratorium. The moratorium was "prompted by incidents of <br />armed burglary at some of the city's eight existing pot stores and complaints from neighbors about <br />increased pedestrian and vehicle traffic and noise ... " <br />C. TRAFFIC, NOISE, AND DRUG DEALING <br />Increased noise and pedestrian traffic, including nonresidents in pursuit of marijuana, and out of area <br />criminals in search of prey, are commonly encountered just outside marijuana dispensaries, as well <br />as drug- related offenses in the vicinity —like resales of products just obtained inside —since these <br />marijuana centers regularly attract marijuana growers, drug users, and drug traffickers. Sharing <br />just purchased marijuana outside dispensaries also regularly takes place. <br />Rather than the "seriously ill," for whom medical marijuana was expressly intended 50 "'perfectly <br />healthy' young people frequenting dispensaries" are a much more common sight . Patient records <br />seized by law enforcement officers from dispensaries during raids in San Diego County, California <br />in December of 2005 "showed that 72 percent of patients were between 17 and 40 years old .... " <br />Said one admitted marijuana trafficker, "The people I deal with are the same faces I was dealing <br />with 12 years ago but now, because of Senate Bill 420, they are supposedly legit. I can totally see <br />why cops are bummed. ,53 <br />Reportedly, a security guard sold half a pound of marijuana to an undercover officer just outside a <br />dispensary in Morro Bay, California. And, the mere presence of marijuana dispensaries <br />encourages illegal growers to plant, cultivate, and transport ever more marijuana, in order to supply <br />and sell their crops to these storefront operators in the thriving medical marijuana dispensary market, <br />so that the national domestic marijuana yield has been estimated to be 35.8 billion dollars, of which <br />a 13.8 billion dollar share is California grown. It is a big business. And, although the operators of <br />some dispensaries will claim that they only accept monetary contributions for the products they <br />© 2009 California Police Chiefs Assn. 9 All Rights Reserved <br />