NEWS: Medical marijuana in Southwest Riverside County appears ‘up in smoke’ with recent decisions.

On Monday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mark Johnson ordered the Wildomar Patients Compassionate Group to close.

Stoking embers of controversy, SouthwestRivCo cities and Riverside County continue to fight against marijuana dispensaries.

Wildomar became the latest city to ban dispensaries, after a Riverside County judge ruled in its favor.

On Monday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mark Johnson ordered the Wildomar Patients Compassionate Group to close. A week earlier, Lake Elsinore City Council members voted to continue a moratorium on the businesses. Riverside County also reversed plans to allow dispensaries in certain areas and kept in place a county ordinance banning the dispensaries.

Wildomar Decision

Wildomar Patients Compassionate Group opened a dispensary in early December after filing a suit against the city. The group contends that the city’s ban on dispensaries contradicts state law granted safe accessing to medical marijuana.

The two sides were in court on Monday. Judge Johnson upheld the city’s ban and immediately ordered the existing Wildomar dispensary to close. The group’s attorney has stated he will file an appeal with the appellate court.

The city voted in 2008 to ban the dispensaries.


Lake Elsinore Decision

On December 14, Lake Elsinore council members continued a moratorium on dispensaries. The temporary ban dates back to Dec. 2009.

The city postponed a decision to wait and see the outcomes of legal proceedings and court ruling from other cities. At the time, the city wanted to see what leeway cities could have in limiting dispensaries.

The staff report for Tuesday’s meeting states the issue is still too undefined to take action on from a legal standpoint.

Riverside County

On the same day, that Lake Elsinore continued its ban, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors reversed plans to create zones where medical marijuana dispensaries could operate. Instead, supervisors decided to stick with an existing ban on marijuana shops.

The county had been working on zoning ordinances that would have allowed dispensaries in certain areas. The supervisors decided to stick with the current ban after watching neighboring counties enact bans.

Source: Southwest Riverside News Network

NEWS: Medical marijuana clinics banned in La Crescenta

LA CRESCENTA — Medical marijuana clinics looking to open in La Crescenta will have to look elsewhere after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday banned the dispensaries in unincorporated areas of the county.

Supervisors had directed county planners in July to prepare an ordinance banning all medical marijuana dispensaries from setting up shop in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich has pushed for the ban, which he said would help keep dispensaries from relocating to unincorporated communities in Los Angeles, where the City Council passed a series of tightened restrictions.

The county had already placed strict restrictions on medical marijuana dispensaries, but officials pointed to the proliferation of shops operating illegally as proof of the need for more regulation.

On Tuesday, the board voted 4 to 1 to approve the ban, with Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky voting in opposition.

"A complete ban is not going to achieve the objectives that all of us want to achieve with some of these out-of-control illegal dispensaries that have popped up in unincorporated areas," he said. "It's the illegal ones that don't come in for permits that are creating a lot of the problems."

In response to a separate motion from Yaroslavsky, the board voted unanimously to direct county officials to take aggressive action against illegal clinics, including levying a fine of $1,000 per day.

In Glendale, city officials have held off on establishing regulations for the dispensaries, instead enacting a moratorium to give city attorneys more time to analyze the complicated, ever-changing legal landscape.

The county's new ban includes a provision that allows for a return to existing regulations if the California Supreme Court rules that outright bans are unconstitutional.

Howard Hakes, president of the Crescenta Valley Drug and Alcohol Prevention Coalition, said he was glad to hear of the ban, citing stories of recreational users easily attaining medical marijuana prescriptions.

"It's closing another loophole where the drugs were coming from," he said. "I think it's great the supervisors saw that."

Crescenta Valley Town Council President Cheryl Davis said most residents she's spoken with support a ban.

"They want the ban because they feel that if there is a need to get medical marijuana there are legal dispensaries near us," she said.

At Tuesday's meeting, many dispensary operators and medical marijuana patients spoke out against the ban, which they said would provide unnecessary hardship for legal users.

"If you ban, it would take people such as myself out of the loop of providing medicines for chronically ill patients," said Sue Taylor, president of the nonprofit cooperative ICann Health Center. "The ban would do nothing for these pot shops — unregulated clubs that are showing up everywhere."

Source: Glendale News-Press