NEWS: Dispensary files claim against Rancho Mirage

Rancho Mirage faces a legal claim from a marijuana dispensary it shut down while officials sift through conflicting legal signals on the issue.

On Thursday, attorney Jeff Lake filed a $530,000 claim with the city on behalf of Desert Heart Collective, the first step toward filing a lawsuit.

Rancho Mirage has 45 days to either pay or reject the claim, at which point the collective would be ready to sue, Lake said.

But he added it still doesn't have to come to that.

“We are working with the city diligently and are attempting to get an ordinance passed before the moratorium expires, which is Dec. 15,” Lake said.

That seemed unlikely after Thursday's City Council meeting, where members voted 4-1 to revisit proposed regulations for operating dispensaries in the city at their Jan. 20 meeting.

Councilman Scott Hines voted no, saying they should try to resolve the matter sooner.

Another council meeting is set for Dec. 14 for a vote on extending the dispensary moratorium, which Lake calls “illegal and unenforceable” in the claim.

The council first adopted that moratorium Sept. 16 after discovering Desert Heart Collective had opened at 42-900 Bob Hope Drive, Suite 111.

The claim is seeking revenue, wages and other costs Lakes said were lost when the dispensary was shut down because of the moratorium.

Rancho Mirage had no law against dispensaries when Desert Heart applied for a business license. But the application was rejected on the grounds dispensaries weren't permitted by existing zoning.

City Attorney Steve Quintanilla said during the council meeting some California cities had turned dispensaries away without banning them based on the federal prohibition on all pot usage.

But a state 4th District Court of Appeals panel ruled Anaheim couldn't use federal law to justify its ban, and on Wednesday the state Supreme Court turned down that city's appeal of the decision.

A statement in that ruling indicated the Supreme Court thinks it “unlikely” that cities can ban dispensaries outright, Quintanilla said.

Two residents spoke in opposition to dispensaries at the meeting.

Rick Smith said he isn't against medical marijuana for patients who truly need it.

But he said ads in local weekly papers for existing dispensaries make it obvious they're going after a different market.

“This one offers $25 off a consultation with a doctor. Why wouldn't you be going to your primary care physician?” Smith asked.

Part-time resident Bob Garner said storefront dispensaries are charging patients too much for medical cannabis and should be banned, keeping distribution between medical marijuana collective members without storefronts.

“Everything's in disarray except the dollars rolling in,” he said.

Source: The Desert Sun

NEWS: Rancho Mirage council may put off vote on medical marijuana

Rancho Mirage's City Council could vote Thursday to put an indefinite hold on the medical marijuana dispensary issue after delaying the topic three times.

City Attorney Steve Quintanilla said Monday he's requesting the delay because the city of Anaheim is appealing the court decision that led city officials to believe they might be forced to allow at least some dispensaries to operate there.

He knew this was a possibility, but, “at the last minute, they filed the papers which let me know they were serious about it.”

The council also plans a special meeting for 1 p.m. Dec. 14 so the council can vote on whether to extend a moratorium on dispensaries that is set to expire the next day.

Quintanilla said he will recommend a yearlong moratorium. The council unanimously approved three previous requests to delay the discussion from Quintanilla.

Rick Pantele, a Rancho Mirage resident and cancer survivor who uses medical marijuana under the state's voter-approved law, said he isn't surprised leaders might put the issue off further, given their pragmatic approach to the issue up to this point.

“The reality is the city attorney said in the last meeting that they're not for medical marijuana in Rancho Mirage; the only reason they're looking at it is they don't get sued,” he said.

Quintanilla said it could happen anyway, coming from a dispensary that opened in Rancho Mirage earlier this year but shut down for the moratorium. Two others want to open in the city as well.

“I guess they're getting impatient, so they have threatened to sue,” he said, though no suit had been filed as of Monday.

Jeff Lake, the attorney for the dispensaries, didn't return calls seeking comment.

Until the council vote was first delayed Oct. 21, the city appeared to be on a fast track to becoming the second Coachella Valley city, after Palm Springs, to allow some dispensaries.

It had never adopted an outright ban that the other seven cities had adopted. So staff scrambled to put together dispensary regulations when one opened in the city after getting turned down for a business permit.

A state court of appeals had recently ruled Anaheim could not use federal laws against marijuana use as the basis to ban medical dispensaries.

This led leaders to believe the city would be forced to allow some to operate in Rancho Mirage.

But the momentum in legislative and court decisions now seems to be going the other way, with Anaheim's appeal supported by a number of other cities and Los Angeles and Orange counties banning dispensaries in unincorporated areas.

Public opposition to medical marijuana has been minimal in Rancho Mirage, but appears to be growing in other parts of California, Mayor Richard Kite said.

“There seems to be more of a concern about the lawful dispensaries currently serving those cities and some of the activities surrounding them,” he said.

Another factor in the lack of public opposition is the absence of public testimony at the last two council meetings.

Kite said there will be a public hearing on Dec. 14. Quintanilla said residents also can speak Thursday, but judges reviewing new laws only look at the minutes from meetings where votes were taken.

Source: The Desert Sun