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Despite complaints, King County Sheriff John Urquhart is defending a crackdown on 15 unlicensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

“They were warned, they received a letter a few days ago letting them know that we were going to take action,” he told . “But by the same token, they know what the law is and they have been operating, in some cases for years, illegally. We just haven’t done anything about it, but now we are.”

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Dispensary owners at Urquhart’s press conference Wednesday said they were upset over letters they received, saying they have to immediately shut down, months before they have the opportunity to apply for legal status.

Many said they’ve put their whole life into their business, and that they’ve been able to operate for years without a problem.

Urquhart said that the Sheriff’s Office is under no obligation to warn illegal operations they are taking action.

“They’ve had all kinds of time to become legal,” he said. “The analogy I like to use is that suppose five years ago somebody opened up a bar right down the street from a liquor store or a bar operating with a license, following all the rules and paying all the taxes. Somebody opened that bar, bought their booze at Costco, were open 24 hours a day, and they weren’t paying taxes. Would the taxpayers expect us to let that go on forever? No. They’d expect us to take action.”

The sheriff noted that his office and Prosecutor Dan Satterberg are under “tremendous” pressure from the public to do something about the marijuana dispensaries that operate without a license. He said that while the medical shops cannot operate for the time being, the dispensaries can apply for a medical marijuana license in June 2016.

Urquhart tried to explain the timing to the dispensary owners, saying, at some point, they have to draw the line or deal with possible Federal intervention, since cracking down on unlicensed shops has been a condition of keeping marijuana legal in Washington.

“If we don’t do that, there is a risk that the Federal government will come in here and attack 502,” Urquhart said. “And if you don’t think that’s going to happen, you wait until the next Presidential election. And if it’s a Republican that gets elected, if it’s a Republican Attorney General, that is a very strong risk that I don’t want to take because I supported I-502. So we are going to do this because these stores are operating illegally. It’s as simple as that.”

Urquhart said the crackdown doesn’t stop anyone from going into Seattle, outside of the Sheriff’s jurisdiction, where 100 such dispensaries are still up and running. Access to medical marijuana still exists, he said.

But the move also engages a portion of the black market that uses the illegal medical marijuana shops, Urquhart said.

“For the most part, in many, many cases these stores are scams,” he said. “They are there to make money, to sell marijuana, many times not to legitimate medical marijuana patients, and not pay taxes.”

“And they compete directly with what the citizens of the state of Washington said they wanted,” Urquhart said. “Which was recreational, legal marijuana.”

Tyson Pickerel manages Herban Legends, which has thrived for four years less than 100 yards from the Skyway Sheriff’s precinct on 16th Avenue Southwest. He says the move seems arbitrary and ill-timed, since it could be months until the state comes up with regulations for medical cannabis and allows him to apply for a license.

“A lot of us will probably find other jobs,” Pickerel said. “We’re really going to try to do whatever we can to help our patients out as long as we can.”

Others pointed down the block and noted that just across the street is the border with Seattle, where unlicensed medical dispensaries are still allowed to operate. A Seattle City Council measure is being debated that would create a new business license for marijuana shops, and shut down operations not licensed by the state. Until that comes up for a vote, unlicensed establishments continue to operate in Seattle.

Trent Davenport, whose wife uses marijuana to manage chronic medical conditions, says they’re both devastated because the crackdown means it will be much more difficult to get cannabis remedies.

“She was in tears last night when I told her that all the shops were closing in the area and we would have to either drive into downtown Seattle or all the way out to Black Diamond to have to pick up some stuff,” Davenport said.