The clinics join others throughout the county waiting to see if they can exist.
While Brea was able to get a judge to place injunctions on the three local dispensaries in March for violating a 2009 city law banning them, all three have cases before an appellate court to determine if the city's ordinance trumps state law allowing such clinics to exist.
One dispensary, Brea Alternative Medicine, had its injunction temporarily stayed by the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana and has continued to operate.
In the meantime, the city's attorneys have been unsuccessfully pursuing suits against the other two dispensaries, Physis Patients Association and Brea Medical Referral Network, for supposedly violating the injunctions:
• Despite hiring a private detective to locate him, as of Monday the city had been unable to serve the president of the Brea Medical Referral Network, Bruce Nguyen, court records show. Brea Medical Referral Network has continued to operate, and on Monday the city is scheduled to argue in Superior Court that the clinic is in violation of an injunction.
• A suit against Shibili Ziadeh, the president of Physis Patients Association, was thrown out on June 17, because the city did not serve him in person. Physis shuttered this week. A note on the dispensary's door says it will be shut down until further notice "due to the city of Brea's attack on compassionate medical marijuana. ... Now it is up to the court of appeals to reverse the city of Brea's stand on medical marijuana."
The appeal court has yet to make a definitive ruling on whether a California city can ban medical-marijuana dispensaries, which are allowed under state law but prohibited under federal law.
Last August, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana ruled in a case involving Anaheim's ban on dispensaries, saying that federal laws banning marijuana do not trump state ones. The court sent the case back to Superior Court Judge David Chaffee to reconsider the case; he hasn't yet made a decision.
Many experts say that case could set a precedent.
James Markman, Brea's city attorney, agreed, adding that the lack of a clear decision from the courts has made the process drawn out and frustrating.
"I'd rather see one of these courts courageously step up and make a decision ... one way or the other," he said "Right now, we are in limbo."
During this limbo, Brea Alternative Medicine continues to operate in a quiet a strip mall on West Imperial Highway.
"People are concerned about their neighborhood, their properties and their customers, and the city, of course, feels the same way," Mayor Roy Moore said.
But Erik Chan, the clinic's president, says it is providing services that are legal for sick patients.
"People are trying to follow the law and what California policymakers have put in place – that is a good thing," he said. "It is an industry that is helping and supporting a lot of people. I see it as a very positive contribution to the greater good."
Source: OC Register
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