A new report by the County Counsel on medical marijuana dispensaries says it has information doctors are selling recommendations allowing use of marijuana for medical purposes, without examining patients.

"It raises suspicions about what's really going on," said Deputy County Counsel John Irby.

The report says doctors travel up and down the state renting motel rooms from which medical recommendations are issued. Doctors contact local marijuana dispensaries and request patient referrals.

But the report does not cite or substantiate any such case happening in Kern County. Irby says he got the information from the Kern County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff Donny Youngblood says he is unaware of any such case. Youngblood says an inspector learned that someone
had dropped by at a dispensary soliciting people to get medical marijuana cards at a motel.

The County Board of Supervisors is in the process of revising its ordinance on marijuana dispensaries. At the heart of the matter is state vs. federal law. Dispensing marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal under California law. But the feds don't see it that way. Possessing, selling or using marijuana is against federal law.

The federal Drug Enforcement Agency has recently raided and closed down several local marijuana dispensaries in Kern County.

Irby says the report gives the county essentially two options. It can keep the current ordinance and revise it, or it can scrap it and leave the
operation of marijuana dispensaries up to the state.

The report will be presented before the County Board of Supervisors
on August 24.