NEWS: Long Beach marijuana collectives continue permit war

LONG BEACH - The fight over Long Beach's new medical marijuana law is still smoldering.

A judge ruled Friday against a Long Beach medical marijuana collective that had sought to continue operating despite being denied a permit, according to Long Beach Deputy City Attorney Cristyl Meyers. Also Friday, members of another collective that must close as well protested in front of City Hall.

"This was not at all unexpected," Meyers said of the legal challenge and other speed bumps that the city has encountered as it implements the complex and controversial marijuana law approved by the City Council in March.

According to information obtained by the Press-Telegram through a public records request, 49 collectives have submitted applications for permits to operate within the city. The non-refundable permit fees of $14,742, plus $11,584 for collectives that have a separate cultivation site, have brought in $791,862 to the city's coffers.

However, one applicant, Alternative Herbal Health Collective, 3702 E. Anaheim St., is fighting for its chance to pay the fee and continue operating.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert O'Brien on Friday morning denied a temporary restraining order sought by the collective against the city. That means the collective must close Monday, which the city is requiring for all collectives that haven't filed permit applications.

The judge still granted the collective a hearing on Sept. 17 to consider a temporary injunction against the city, although it's unclear why the judge might support that after denying the restraining order.

Alternative Herbal Health had asked for the temporary injunction because its petition to force the city to accept its permit application won't be heard in court until Nov. 23.

School too close

The city had rejected the permit application and permit fee because the collective is too close to a school, Meyers said. The new medical marijuana law prohibits collectives from operating within 1,000 feet of an elementary school or 1,500 feet of a high school.

A map created by the city that shows where collectives are allowed indicates that the Alternative Herbal Health site is within the 1,500-foot buffer zone of Educational Partnership High School, a Long Beach Unified School District alternative high school that has seven locations throughout the city.

"Our contention is that the city doesn't have the right to reject our application," Richard Brizendine, the attorney for Alternative Herbal Health, said Friday. "They must accept it and process it."

If the permit is rejected, then the collective can appeal the denial to the council.

"What we would like is the opportunity to have an administrative hearing on whether or not (the alternative high school) qualifies as an actual school," Brizendine said.

(un)Happy Acres protest

Another of the marijuana law's regulations - that there must be written proof that the owner of a building in which a collective is located knows the site will be used for medical marijuana - has hamstrung another collective.

Erik Sund, business relations director for Long Beach, said that Happy Acres Collective, 110 W. Ocean Blvd., didn't comply with that stipulation by the Aug. 16 application deadline. Unlike Brizendine's client, Happy Acres paid its $14,742 fee.

Happy Acres operator Johnny Medina and about 20 members of his collective protested Friday in front of City Hall against the marijuana permit policy.

"They told me that I did qualify, they took my money, and then they wouldn't give me a permit or allow me to operate," Medina said.

He also complained that he hadn't been informed in the time required about whether his permit had been accepted.

Sund said that isn't how it happened. After some problems with Happy Acres' paperwork, the collective was given a chance to resubmit the documents, but it didn't do so properly by the deadline, he said.

The only reason that Medina learned that his collective hadn't qualified was that he kept calling about it, Sund said.

None of the other 49 applicants have been informed because under the marijuana regulations, the city had 10 days from the Aug. 16 deadline to review the permits and then 10 days in which to send them notice if their application was in order or was rejected.

Long Beach's law forbids collectives from being within 1,000 feet of each other. In those cases, the collective that gets to remain opened will be determined by a lottery drawing.

The lottery is scheduled to take place Sept. 20.

Fee may increase

At that point, more than a year will have passed since the council first began discussing how to regulate the growing number of medical marijuana collectives in the city.

Already, city officials are thinking about increasing the permit fee "because of the cost of enforcement and monitoring," Assistant City Manager Suzanne Frick said Friday.

"We're finding it's taking a lot more staff time to process the applications and to find out what's happening," Frick said.

She said the amount of the increase hasn't been determined yet, but many collective members say the fee is already excessive.

The permit fees that already have been collected, nearly $800,000 worth, will be used to help balance the city's budget, Frick said - not for the next fiscal year's deficit, but in the current year.

Revenues are falling short with one month to go in the fiscal year, so any extra revenues the city has will boost the current bottom line, she said.

Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram