LAGUNA NIGUEL – Bad experiences with marijuana dispensaries in Santa Ana, Lake Forest and Dana Point led Bill Leber into the world of weed.

While they all followed the law and required a doctor’s approval, Leber said the dispensaries he visited were run by young people, sometimes in seedy neighborhoods. After watching a “terrified” woman in her 70s try to buy marijuana from one, he decided it was time to give seniors an alternative.

Leber started Golden Angels Seniors Collective, a mobile dispensary. He said he has scrupulously followed state law and the Attorney General’s recommendations on how to form a collective.

Still, Leber’s collective is illegal under city laws, Community Development Director Dan Fox said. The City Council passed an ordinance in July prohibiting marijuana dispensaries and “use, cultivation or dispensing of marijuana” in Laguna Niguel.

“This does apply to mobile delivery services,” Fox said.

In San Clemente, which has a similar law, enforcement has proven difficult. Brent Panas, a San Clemente code enforcement official, said his department can’t cite mobile dispensaries unless they are caught in the act, which is difficult with a small staff.

Laguna Niguel has not stopped Leber from running his collective. He was, however, turned away from a recent health fair at the senior and community center because of city laws, an example of the legal issues associated with medical marijuana use he wants to educate seniors about.

A serious digestive problem that put Leber in the hospital is what led him to medical marijuana. A friend told him to try it for nausea.

“I had a 30 percent chance of making it out of the hospital,” Leber said.

He had tried the drug in high school, at the time deciding it wasn’t for him. During his illness, he found pot relieved his nausea without the side effects of prescription medicine. And he credits marijuana for getting him off two blood pressure medications.

Leber doesn’t fit the typical image of a marijuana user. A lifelong Republican and U.S. Army veteran in his 50s who voted for Ronald Reagan and belonged to the Young Republicans for Richard Nixon, Leber is active in the Rotary Club, the American Legion and local charity work. He said his marijuana use and advocacy would surprise even him, prior to his hospitalization more than a year ago.

“If you had told me before April 2009 that I’d be involved in this, I’d say you were nuts,” he said.

The city is taking a wait-and-see approach to pot. Legal issues may be resolved by courts by the time the city’s moratorium expires in July 2011.

Unlike the city, Leber decided too many local seniors “don’t have much time.”

One of his clients is having a double-mastectomy Friday. He said marijuana has helped ease her anxiety, increase her appetite during chemotherapy and has helped her back off from powerful pain medications.

“It isn’t recreational use for these people,” he said.

Contact the writer: pschelden@ocregister.com or 949-492-5128