Fresno County Pot Shops Shut Down

At the Healing Health Center near Malaga, south of Fresno, customers hurried in.

“I wish these guys could stay open forever,” said patient James Mora. 

He uses marijuana to treat ulcers and arthritis. The manager of Healing Health gave him a free ounce of marijuana while we were there.

“This is a month of meds. This is a month,” said Mora. 

Mora says without the dispensaries, he’ll go to the street for marijuana.

Rod Wise says he may end up there too. 

“I don't like it at all because now I'm forced to go to the streets to do illegal things to get my medication,” Wise said.

The dispensaries shut down rather than break the law. 

Fresno County banned the shops after deadly shootings and other crime connected to marijuana and complaints to the sheriff from residents.

“What they suffered in their communities when the dispensaries were there was high traffic vandalism some loitering,” said Fresno Sheriff Margaret Mims. 

Almost every county in the valley has banned dispensaries.

Shops are still operating in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

But the federal government wants to shut them down. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.  

Even religious broadcaster Pat Robertson is weighing in, saying marijuana should be legalized. He contends the government’s war on drugs has failed, so they may as well treat it and tax it like alcohol.