So Temecula and the sheriff's department are being sued over last year's seizure of more than 70 pot plants from a purported medical-marijuana cooperative. The plants were at a member couple's city home.

The homeowner is charged with cultivation and possession with intent to sell, but the eight co-op claimants each would like a million bucks recompense for plants they say were theirs, not the defendant's.

All involved have state-issued medical marijuana-user cards.

While cities and counties have regulatory power over cultivation, possession and distribution, when it comes to collectives, says Prop. 215 co-author Dale Gieringer, Stanford Ph.D. and California NORML vice chair, they clearly can not be banned.

But even though SB420 promotes collective growing and distribution, he acknowledges storefronts are dicier and can fall victim to land-use and zoning regulations.

Undecided, he says, is when regulation becomes strangulation.

Now that the feds correctly have withdrawn from the debate, one hopes the states will proceed in an orderly manner to the voters' will.

But Southern California's climate apparently precludes trying to administer, rather than thwart, the law.

In San Diego County dispensaries have been raided en masse, the Los Angeles D.A. has declared war on that county's 800 storefronts, and L.A. has tried to ban new dispensaries.

All with no sign of relenting; the law is being managed horribly.

It would seem not that hard.

Once a state's residents OK medical marijuana, its use is allowed in all jurisdictions. Beyond that, the locals decide the degree, if at all, of open cultivation, storefront distribution and public use.

If most residents say sure, allow dispensaries, and their elected officials say no way, well, there's always that next election. Bet no one loses.

In fact, a city or county could grow and distribute it as a revenue source, as at least one Colorado town is considering. Really.

Medical marijuana isn't going away. Fourteen states allow it and Commerce Online Inc. has a prepaid debit/ID "GreenCard" for use at California and Colorado dispensaries. You even can fly from some airports with it.

This whole thing over the dispensaries was put nicely by Escondido reader and community volunteer Mary Anne Dijak who wrote, referencing the San Diego raids: "It is unfortunate that these dealers (dispensaries) erode the compassion that was the foundation of the Compassion Use Act of 1996. This allows terminally or seriously ill patients the opportunity to use marijuana, with the recommendation of their physician, to alleviate suffering and discomfort brought on by illness or medical treatment."

She applauds the raids.

You can't disagree. Frankly, anyone whose illegal action adds to the difficulties facing these legal cooperatives/collectives/dispensaries ought to be in jail.

Phil Strickland writes from Temecula. Contact him at philipestrickland@yahoo.com.