Medical-marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles ask for "donations" from customers who want to buy the drugs, but the city's new district attorney and others call the transactions sales that are illegal under state law.

The Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 1 that the huge profits being pulled in by some dispensaries -- which are supposed to be nonprofit entities -- have increased scrutiny by law enforcement and are threatening to undermine the state's medical-marijuana law.

"The people who are simply trying to make a profit are the ones messing it up for those people that need it and those legitimate distributors who are trying to help people," said Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine. The council has been working for two years to draft a medical-marijuana ordinance for the city.

The state's original medical-marijuana law did not address the concept of marijuana coops for selling the drugs, but in 2003 that state passed a law that allowed patients and caregivers to "associate within the State of California in order collectively or cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes." However, the Los Angeles city attorney's office says that exemptions from prosecution in the law don't apply to selling the drug.

Medical-marijuana advocates disagree. "Whether the sales happen over the counter, under a basket or standing on their head, they're legal," said Don Duncan, California director of Americans for Safe Access. One cooperative owner, Michael Backes, said that his program isn't selling the drug at all. "It's an incremental reimbursement for costs that have been collectively incurred," said Michael Backes of Cornerstone Collective.