NEWS: Supervisors to determine fate of proposed dispensary

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors will decide later this summer whether a medical marijuana dispensary in Nipomo gets to open its doors.

Last month, the county Planning Commission voted 3-2 to deny a minor-use permit for the dispensary proposed by Robert Brody of Los Angeles and Tom Meredith of Long Beach.

Brody filed an appeal of the split decision earlier this month, which is expected to be heard by the supervisors in August or September, according to the Planning and Building Department.

County ordinance allows establishment of dispensaries in unincorporated areas such as Nipomo but specifies the facilities must be located 1,000 feet away from public schools, playgrounds, parks, youth or recreation centers and libraries.

The proposed dispensary on Lindon Lane is more than 1,000 feet from Nipomo High School, but a private gymnastics studio — Paradise Gymnastics Studio — is located within 94 feet of the building where Brody wants to open the facility.

The commission denied the permit, in part, because of the dispensary’s proximity to the gymnastics facility, which the majority of the commission believed fell within the parameters of a public youth-serving center.

Brody disagrees.

“The intent of establishing location standards was to provide separation for where children congregate ... public schools, libraries, parks, playgrounds, recreation or youth center, not a business center that caters to children,” Brody wrote. “This broadbrush approach was not the intent.”

County project planner Bill Robeson said the ordinance’s distance requirement is intended to protect children and that planning staff was being conservative when it applied the requirement to the private gymnastics studio.

Planning staff had recommended denying the permit because of the short distance between the studio and dispensary.

The dispensary also was met with overwhelming opposition from the community, whose members believe such a facility would become a magnet for criminal activity.

The appeal asserts that there is “no substantiated proof” that opening and operating a dispensary in the community would be detrimental to the health, safety or welfare of the general public, including children.

“The medical marijuana dispensary across the street in a different industrial park will have no impact on the gymnastics studio,” Brody wrote. “I am sure county planners did their due diligence when assigning this location as acceptable.”

Source: Santa Maria Times

VIDEO: Rich Billock on medical marijuana in San Diego Neighborhood Safety and Public Services Committee Meeting

Rich Billock, caregiver for his wife (a Multiple Sclerosis patient), on medical marijuana regulations at the San Diego Neighborhood Safety & Public Services Committee Meeting (May 26, 2010).

NEWS: Marijuana lollipops for sale on Lakers parade route

In addition to the sales of Lakers paraphernalia and water, some surprising entrepreneurs took to the parade route to sell their wares.

Among them was a mobile truck, Weed World Candies.com, selling marijuana lollipops in hues of orange and blue. (The truck itself is green with a photo mural of young women in bikinis sorting marijuana leaves.)

The assortment included brands of marijuana such as OG Kush and Grand Daddy Perp. The truck’s owner, Bilal Muhammad, said he was recently forced to shut down his store in West Hollywood and had taken his business on the road.

Customers approaching his truck were asked if they had a prescription card allowing them to purchase marijuana and then were handed a free lollipop.

“It’s been working out very well,” he said of business before driving away as police became visible in the distance.

So far, Muhammad was able to work without interruption from police.

-- Gale Holland

Source: Los Angeles Times

EVENT: Sun City senior group hosts medical marijuana speaker

The Riverside County United Communities group will hear a presentation by Lanny Swerdlow, a nurse and activist who runs a Riverside medical marijuana clinic, at its Saturday morning meeting in Sun City.

Swerdlow is scheduled to speak about the benefits and problems of medical marijuana at 10:30 a.m. after breakfast at Boston Billie's Restaurant, 26850 Cherry Hills Blvd.

Source: The Press-Enterprise

Drug Dealers Do Not Check ID, It's time to Legalize, Educate, and Regulate

NEWS: Lake Forest medical marijuana shop operators face contempt charge

Attorneys for the city of Lake Forest will go to court today to ask a judge to hold the operators of two medical marijuana dispensaries in contempt for staying open despite being ordered to close.

Attorneys for the city were prepared to seek contempt-of-court orders against eight medical marijuana dispensaries yesterday but, by day's end, four were closed, said Jeffrey Dunn, an attorney representing the city.

On May 28, Orange County Superior Court Judge David Chaffee ordered all 10 remaining dispensaries in the city to close.

Attorney Damian J. Nassiri, who represents the Lake Forest Wellness Center and Collective dispensary, said he filed a notice of appeal today, triggering a stay of the judge's order.

"When you file an appeal it takes away jurisdiction from the trial court and moves it to the appellate court, so this court has no authority in this case," Nassiri said.

Dunn disagreed.

"He's wrong," Dunn said. "The notice of appeal does not stay or stop [the judge's order]."

Dunn noted attorneys for the dispensaries twice failed to get a stay of Chaffee's order.

Lake Forest attorneys successfully argued the city can use zoning laws to prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries, Dunn said. Additionally, in the May 28 order, Chaffee ruled that because marijuana is still classified as an illegal drug by federal authorities, it can't be legally dispensed in California.

In September, as many as 35 pot outlets were in operation in Lake Forest before city officials started cracking down.

In 1996, voters statewide approved Proposition 215 that enabled people with a doctor's recommendation to legal smoke, possess and grow pot, but many municipal officials dragged their feet in accommodating the law, which was later refined by Senate Bill 420.

Dispensary operators and Lake Forest city officials still disagree on what the law does and does not allow, and what municipalities can do to regulate pot outlets.

Lake Forest officials have won several decisions in state and federal court in which judges have ruled that they have the right to use nuisance laws to prohibit dispensaries.

A precedent-setting ruling stemming from Anaheim's efforts to close medical marijuana dispensaries could come from the appellate court in mid-July.

Source: 89.3 KPCC | Southern California Public Radio

NEWS: Lake Forest's last pot shop standing

LAKE FOREST – Despite a Superior Court judge's order to shut down immediately, business on Thursday was booming at the Lake Forest Wellness Center and Collective.

In less than an hour at least 12 patients – including some first-timers – came into the second-story suite on Raymond Way seeking relief for chronic pain, anxiety and muscle disorders.

"We're here for our patients," said Damon Harris, a Marine who served from 1998 to 2004 and who runs the collective. "We treat people recovering from cancer, people with MS, sleep problems, ADHD and war vets. We're not doing anything wrong – why should we leave?"

In September, Lake Forest sued 35 people in the city, including medical marijuana dispensary owners and retail landowners who rented space to them. Since then, 21 collectives have shut down; the Lake Forest Wellness Center and Collective continues to operate.

The collective is the last one to stay open, defying the city and the court order to close down.
"We are filing an appeal today with the court and appealing the Superior Court decision to close down," said Damian Nassiri, an attorney representing the Lake Forest Wellness Center and Collective. "We've heard the city is going to try and obtain a contempt of court order. In our opinion the city is not following procedure. The collective has never been served with any papers to close."

In the order made public Monday, Judge David Chaffee ruled that "all defendants and their officers, agents, employees, representatives and all persons acting in concert or participating with them are prohibited and restrained from engaging in committing, providing the location or performing by any means activity related to the distribution of marijuana."

On Tuesday the city of Lake Forest posted a note on its website calling for all dispensaries in the city to shut down by 5 p.m.

Thursday, city officials checked the store fronts. Only Lake Forest Wellness remained open at the end of the day.

On Friday, Jeffrey Dunn, who has led the city's effort against the dispensaries, said the city file papers to begin contempt proceedings against the dispensary.

"They'll have to show up in court and explain why they haven't closed," Dunn said Thursday afternoon. "It will be up to the judge to decide what to do."

Dunn said the dispensary could be fined or those involved could face possible jail time.
"This has been an important issue to the city," Dunn said. "They (dispensaries) create a whole host of problems for the city. They are not and never have been an allowable use."

Officials say the dispensaries have been operating in violation of the city's zoning code
Michael Deblese, 24, came from Los Angeles on Thursday to get his medical marijuana. A few years ago a broken jaw left him debilitated and unable to eat. Prescription drugs like Vicodin left him nauseous and numb.

"I wanted to use something that helped me that was natural," he said. "I've smoked it up until now. I want to start being more healthy and use it in oils and butter on my food."

Deblese is worried that closing the dispensaries will make medicinal marijuana illegal.

"We know people will continue to smoke marijuana," he said. "Closing them will create more danger and illegal business. When people can't get marijuana, they'll go to something stronger like heroine. Is that what we really want?"

Diane Johnson, 43, from Mission Viejo, also came to Lake Forest Wellness on Thursday. A hiking accident that resulted in a severe injury to her leg left her disabled and barely able to walk.
Diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy, Johnson is unable to sleep at night without the help of marijuana, which she uses in a vaporizer.

"It's been very comfortable coming here," Johnson said. "If the dispensary is shut down it will make it difficult. I'll have to travel to Los Angeles. It's very difficult for me to even drive here now."

Source: OC Register

NEWS: Police put medical cannabis deliverers on notice

Ventura County law enforcement officials said Wednesday they intend to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries and delivery services, days after authorities arrested a couple on suspicion of running an illegal marijuana business in Thousand Oaks.

“I have an easy message for them. Shut down or move out of the county,” said Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Gary Pentis of the Special Service Division that oversees major crimes and narcotics. “We are looking at them. This is something that is definitely on our radar.”

Every city in Ventura County has a permanent ban or moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries or storefront operations, which officials say includes delivery services.

But advertisements for marijuana delivery services continue to appear in local print publications and online, even as Los Angeles has moved to shut down more than 400 medical marijuana dispensaries.

While local storefront operations have been closed, delivery services have operated with little scrutiny. And some say these businesses could increase if voters approve an initiative on the November ballot that would legalize pot possession.

Drug investigators will not allow delivery services to take hold, Pentis said.

“They are nothing more than drug-dealing operations” that violate the state law allowing the “compassionate” use of marijuana to treat medical ills, he said.

Ventura Police Chief Ken Corney described such delivery services as illegal mobile dispensaries, saying “people cannot possess marijuana for sale.”

Cheryl Temple, a senior deputy district attorney, agreed.

“The District Attorney’s Office has no interest in seeing a cancer patient or seriously ill person being denied the medicine they are lawfully allowed, but we will shut down any narcotics sellers or delivery group that is distributing illegal narcotics.”

California’s 1996 initiative and a companion law approved by the Legislature in 2003 granted cities and counties most of the authority over implementing the Compassionate Use Act, which allows patients with a doctor’s recommendation to have marijuana for personal medical use.

The city of Camarillo is believed to be the first to expressly outlaw delivery services, according to Americans for Safe Access.

“Deliveries are not allowed under state law and not allowed under our ordinance,” Camarillo City Attorney Brian Pierik said of the city law adopted in May. “But we wanted to make sure there was no doubt about it.”

Attorneys representing medical marijuana patients have argued that laws to shut down dispensaries and delivery services would unconstitutionally bar patients’ access to their medicine.

But Temple countered that provisions in the California Health & Safety Code that allow some people to lawfully provide marijuana to others is largely restricted to a person’s primary caregiver and does not extend to delivery services.

“Your primary caregiver does not mean your primary dope dealer,” she said.

Fabian Citraro, 32, and his wife, Amanda Citraro, 30, owners of Mary Jane’s Bud in Thousand Oaks, were arrested last week on suspicion of illegally cultivating marijuana and possession for sale, Pentis said. Both have been charged with felony counts and pleaded not guilty at their arraignment, court officials said. Authorities announced the arrest Tuesday.

Investigators also are seeking child endangerment charges because food cooked with marijuana was found on the bottom shelf of a refrigerator at the Citraros’ home that was easily accessible to their children, Pentis said.

Pentis noted a 2-year-old in Oxnard recently overdosed on a marijuana product that looked like a pudding cup, and parents have a responsibility to keep their medical marijuana out of a child’s reach, just like their prescribed drugs. The child survived but the parents may be prosecuted, he said.

Reached by phone, Fabian Citraro declined to comment.

Mary Jane’s Bud is a medical marijuana collective and delivery group serving all of Ventura County, according to its website.

The Citraros are the second delivery service operators arrested in Ventura County in recent years.

805 Delivery owner Kim Lurie, 43, and Hilton Gurfinkiel, 33, were arrested on suspicion of selling marijuana in September for running a delivery service and making a stop in Camarillo. Gurfinkiel’s charges were dropped. Lurie has been charged with selling marijuana and her case is pending, officials said.

Operators of other delivery services that advertise in Ventura County said Wednesday that the Mary Jane’s Bud bust has given them pause about continuing.

“We definitely are going to have to think about it. No one wants to go to jail,” said Tom, owner of the local medical marijuana delivery service Emerald Flower of Life. He didn’t want to give his last name because he fears being targeted.

Tom insisted he doesn’t “sell to kids,” and most of his patients are older, housebound and suffering from cancer or other debilitating ailments. They have legitimate permission to consume medical marijuana under California law.

“I’d hate to say no to somebody,” he said. “But we may have to at this point.”

Source: Ventura County Star