NEWS: Manager Who Sold Medical Marijuana To Undercover Officers To Be Sentenced

Mr. Jovan Jackson

SAN DIEGO -- Sentencing is scheduled Wednesday for the former manager of a now-defunct medical marijuana dispensary convicted of selling the drug for profit to undercover officers.

Jovan Jackson -- himself a medical marijuana patient -- was found guilty in September of three felony counts, including possession for sale of marijuana.

Jackson faces more than six years behind bars, but Deputy District Attorney Chris Lindberg said he wouldn't expect Jackson to do any time in prison.

A jury found that Jackson twice last year sold marijuana to undercover officers from Answerdam Alternative Care in Kearny Mesa.

Judge Howard Shore ruled before trial that Jackson could not use the state's medical marijuana law as a defense.

Lindberg said Jackson's actions exceeded the bounds of the medical marijuana law in opening up a retail medical marijuana store.

Defense attorney Lance Rogers is expected to bring a motion for a new trial before sentencing.
During trial, Lindberg said an undercover officer was able to get a medical marijuana card after complaining to a doctor about back pain.

The officer went to Answerdam on July 16, 2009, and bought 1/4-ounce of marijuana for $130, the prosecutor said.

Jackson, 32, appeared to be in charge of the business when the officer was there buying drugs, according to Lindberg.

He said officers seized drugs and other business records during a raid at the business, but Jackson was not there. According to some of the records seized, drug sales totaled $14,000 for the months of June and July 2009, Lindberg said.

Rogers said that part of the problem is the vagueness of the state law, which allows medical marijuana patients to grow the drug for medicinal purposes.

The California Attorney General's Office issued guidelines in 2008 on how medical marijuana could be grown and distributed, but those guidelines are intepreted differently in different counties, Rogers said.

Another problem is "cross-sworn officers" who are charged with enforcing both state and federal law, because all marijuana possession is illegal under federal law, he said.

Jackson was acquitted last year of similar charges stemming from a raid at the Kearny Mesa collective in which an undercover detective bought marijuana in the summer of 2008.

Source: 10News.com (CNN)

NEWS: Appeal likely in LA medical pot ruling

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A lawyer for 60 Los Angeles marijuana dispensaries says he expects the city to appeal a ruling blocking enforcement of new regulations on the pot shops.

Attorney David Welch told the Los Angeles Times the ruling would allow his clients to remain open pending further litigation on his lawsuit against the ordinance.

"It means they can't use strong-arm tactics such as arresting my clients and raids of the dispensaries to prevent my clients from going through the legal process," Welch said.

The Times said Saturday that the city attorney's office declined comment on the ruling, which was issued in Los Angeles Superior Court Friday.

The ruling involves a recent ordinance approved by the City Council that would only allow medical marijuana dispensaries that were registered with the city prior in 2007 to remain open. Scores of other such businesses would have to close.

The Times said Judge Anthony Mohr agreed the ordinance violated state and federal provisions for equal protection under the law.

Mohr also wrote in his 40-page ruling that grandfathering in the existing dispensaries was, in his opinion, a viable compromise. The city, however, has been trying to get a handle on a sudden boom in pot dispensaries around town.

Source: United Press International

NEWS: Wildomar medical marijuana collective goes to court

Wildomar, California

The organizers of a Wildomar medical marijuana collective are asking for the court's help in their fight to stay open.

Wildomar Patients Compassionate Group is seeking an order to stop the city Planning Director Matthew Bassi from enforcing the city's ban on medical marijuana dispensaries.

In legal papers filed Monday in Riverside County Superior Court, lawyers for the collective argued that Bassi's legal authority to enforce the ban conflicts with state law that allows for the medicinal use of marijuana. The petition also alleges that Bassi's actions "are motivated exclusively by a desire" to eliminate collectives.

Wildomar City Manager Frank Oviedo on Wednesday said the petition wasn't unexpected. He said the city attorney will review the petition and advise the City Council.

The petition comes more than two months after the council upheld the city's ban on dispensaries. The nonprofit collective, which signed a one-year lease for a Mission Trail property last December, opened in March but soon received a cease-and-desist letter from the city threatening civil and criminal action if it didn't shut down, according to the petition.

Besides an order to stay open, the collective also wants the court to rescind the letter.

The collective suspended operations so the council could craft an ordinance allowing collectives. But the council voted 3-1 with one absent in September to retain the ban.

The petition comes as another collective gets started in Temecula. Cooperative Patients' Services argues that Temecula's dispensary ban doesn't apply to it, because the collective isn't selling marijuana to patients but patients are exchanging it with each other.

Temecula officials have said the collective has no right to handle marijuana.

In Riverside, a judge on Wednesday ruled the city was within its rights to use zoning laws to ban dispensaries. The city is trying to shut down seven dispensaries within its boundaries.

Currently, Palm Springs is the only Riverside County city to allow dispensaries. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors is considering a law to permit dispensaries in unincorporated areas.

Source: The Press-Enterprise