Medical-marijuana outlets that sell the drug over the counter in Los Angeles will be prosecuted criminally, according to county district attorney Steve Cooley.

The Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 9 that Cooley contends that the majority of medical-marijuana dispensaries in the county are operating in violation of state law, which stipulates that collectives can only charge enough to cover their own costs, not rake in profits. There currently are up to 800 medical-marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, many operating without permission.

"The vast, vast, vast majority, about 100 percent, of dispensaries in Los Angeles County and the city are operating illegally, they are dealing marijuana illegally, according to our theory," Cooley said. "The time is right to deal with this problem."

However, Joe Elford, a lawyer for Americans for Safe Access, said that Cooley is misinterpreting the law. "I'm confident that they are not right," said Elford. "If they are right, it would mean that thousands of seriously ill Californians for whom the Compassionate Use Act was intended to help would not be able to get the medicine that they need."

Don Duncan, California director of Americans for Safe Access, agreed that many dispensaries are in violation of the law and urged Cooley to focus on those programs. "You don't have to cast a net over the entire community, you can target the problem people and not take this extreme adversarial position," he said.

Drug policy expert Mark Kleiman of UCLA termed Cooley's proposed crackdown "a natural response to the rather flagrant marketing practices of a bunch of the dispensaries. The medical veneer has been wearing thinner and thinner. I've always wondered why those things were legal when they didn't look legal to me."