By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

February 13 -- With more and more pot dispensaries popping up around Los Angeles, the question of whether Santa Monica will be hip to marijuana clubs will be placed squarely before the City Council Tuesday night.

Sensing local attitudes towards medical marijuana may be changing, 23-year-old Nathan Hamilton said he and a partner invested nearly $14,000 in the past two months to rent a space for a dispensary on Main Street and Pacific Avenue in the heart of the progressive Ocean Park neighborhood.

"Right now, people have to drive miles away to get their medicine," said Hamilton, an Agora Hills resident. "They should be able to get it right here in Santa Monica.

"This is not a drug operation,” he said. “This is dispensing medicine to people who use it as a drug to help with everything from chronic pain to chemotherapy."

After jumping through a series of legal and bureaucratic hoops -- from the County to the State to the Internal Revenue Service -- Hamilton will be asking the council to approve what would be Santa Monica’s first marijuana dispensary.

"All I need now is for the City to approve my business license," Hamilton said.

That might be easier said than done in Santa Monica, which, despite its liberal reputation, has been one of the least tolerant municipalities when it comes to allowing medical marijuana dispensaries inside the city's borders.

Mayor Richard Bloom -- who admittedly does not know much about the clinics -- said he is undecided on the issue, but would ask staff to return with more information.

"I suspect we'll just kick it back to staff," he said Monday.

Since 56 percent of California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996 allowing the sale of marijuana to patients with a prescription, cities from San Francisco to Santa Cruz and Los Angeles have allowed clubs to operate within their boundaries.

For Santa Monica to join the list, Hamilton will need to convince the council to change the local zoning code, since, for years, City officials have denied business permits on the grounds that the proposed use is not explicitly allowed.

"It's not a permitted use anywhere in Santa Monica," said Paul Foley, a principal planner for the City.

Planners have received inquiries on the matter for a decade, Foley said.

"If the City Council wanted to change that, they would ask us to draft an ordinance to add it to the code," he said.

As for the proposed dispensary’s impact on the neighborhood, the Planning Department must first determine if neighboring cities are offering the service, he said..

"We just don't know," Foley said.

Former Council member Michael Feinstein, who served on the Ocean Park neighborhood group’s Main Street advisory committee in 1989-90, thinks the dispensary would pose no problem to a shopping strip that includes retro boutiques and a new vegetarian restaurant.

“Clearly we have an eclectic neighborhood, and this would be another added use that would fit in,” said Feinstein, a Green Party member who served two terms on the council. “If the council approves the zoning, it would create quite a buzz on the street.”

While local law enforcement may have expressed concerns about dispensaries in the past, there are indications that times are changing.

Today, such a clinic need not to worry about being raided by Santa Monica police, said police department officials.

"As long as the business has its license, the police department would not treat it differently than any other business," said Captain Wendell Shirley, who oversees the Office of Special Enforcement, which includes the narcotics section.

Police Chief Tim Jackman -- who took over in December -- has said he would abide by Proposition U, a law passed by local voters last November that makes marijuana "the lowest enforcement priority" for local police.

"We will not sit here and plan operations and go after everyone that smokes marijuana in their living room," Jackman said in an interview last month. "We don't have time for that.

"If you are talking about marijuana for sale or to kids, we take those kinds of things very seriously," he said. "But for individual use or possession, if we find it, we'll take action… but other than that, it's not going to be a big deal for us."

Such a stance is dramatic departure from the position taken by former Chief James T. Butts, Jr., who indicated he would ignore proposition U -- which passed with 65 percent of the vote -- and actively campaigned against the measure.

Hamilton said he chose Santa Monica not only because of the absence of clinics, but because Proposition U passed with such an overwhelming majority.

"To be perfectly honest, all the proposition did was give me encouragement," he said.

Yet the clinics may face pressure from Federal law enforcement.

Last month Federal authorities raided 11 such clinics in Los Angeles County after LA Police Chief William Bratton testified that the number of dispensaries had jumped from four in November 2005 to 98 a year later and that tougher regulations of clinics are needed.

While there may be opposition to his proposed business, Hamilton believes the fears that his dispensary would encourage illegal activities are unfounded.

"I don't believe this would increase crime,” he said. “I think it would make it even less because what it would do is take away one more product from illegal drug dealers."

The business would abide by any and all laws, including the mandatory installation of 24-hour-survellience and a security guard, Hamilton said.

Meanwhile, Hamilton plans to follow through on his and his 19-year-old partner’s investment -- $3,500 a month for rent.

"This is a natural supplement here on Earth," he said. "We should be able to take advantage of it."