Pot Clubs Grow Like Weeds in San Jose

San Jose officials are cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries that are popping up like weeds around the city.
     
San Jose, which had no known pot clubs a year ago, now has as many as 30 dispensaries, according to one online directory.

City code enforcement officials say they have started to hear complaints from residents, and the department has begun investigating a number of them for illegal operations.

"We've started to receive some complaints, and we're currently doing investigations on a number of these," Mike Hannon told the San Jose Mercury News. "If it looks as though they're operating as dispensaries, we're going to advise the owners to shut the dispensaries."

The city is notifying some dispensaries they must close within 30 days, and landlords could face fines up to $2,500 a day if the dispensaries remain open.

Pot clubs have proliferated across California since voters approved a 1996 ballot measure to legalize medicinal use of marijuana, but the move has been mired in legal uncertainty since then.