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  CA Dispensaries Can’t Be Banned but Must Grow
Posted by CN Staff on March 02, 2012 at 14:12:43 PT
By Maura Dolan, The Los Angeles Times 
Source: Los Angeles Times 

medical Los Angeles -- California cities may not ban medical marijuana dispensaries, but the operations may sell only weed that is grown on site, an appeals court ruled in an Orange County case.

The unanimous decision by a three-judge Court of Appeal panel in Santa Ana was the first in the state to prohibit cities from enacting zoning restrictions that effectively ban all marijuana dispensaries. The court was also the first to rule that dispensaries must grow the marijuana they sell, a requirement that would force most of them out of business.


The ruling, issued late Wednesday, struck down a zoning law in the city of Lake Forest that the judges said amounted to "a total bar contradicting state law."

"A local government cannot ban as a nuisance exactly what the Legislature contemplated would occur at cooperative and collective medical marijuana cultivation sites," Justice Richard M. Aronson wrote for the court. Aronson, appointed to the trial bench by former Gov. Pete Wilson and elevated by Gov. Gray Davis, was joined by a Republican appointee and a Democratic appointee.

The decision conflicted with other appellate court rulings on medical marijuana, and attorneys in the case said they expected the California Supreme Court would agree to hear an appeal.

David Welch, an attorney for a now-closed Lake Forest medical pot operation, said cities should heed this week’s ruling and "not implement bans simply because that is the easy route." Municipal bans of medical marijuana have proliferated since voters decriminalized the weed for medical purposes in 1996. For every city that permits medical marijuana operations, nine others ban them, Welch said.

Jeffrey Dunn, a lawyer who represented Lake Forest, said the court’s requirement that dispensaries sell pot grown only on site would shut down most storefront operations.

"I don’t see how you can grow in a tiny, rented space enough pot for over 1,000 customers," Dunn said.

The federal government, acting at Lake Forest’s request, forced more than 30 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city to close last year. Welch said his client would seek to reopen, but Dunn, citing an expected appeal, predicted that would not happen.

The Lake Forest decision added to a stack of rulings that have befuddled local governments and was unlikely to add much clarity.

One appeals court upheld the right of cities to use zoning laws to prohibit dispensaries. Another said city regulations that allow any medical marijuana violate federal law. A federal judge this week threw out a lawsuit to prevent the federal government from shutting down dispensaries.

"What perplexes me is this opinion issuance without references to other opinions that are being issued," Special Assistant Los Angeles City Attorney Jane Usher said Thursday. "I would certainly hope that every decision-maker in this field would at least make an effort to reconcile the evolving law."

Usher said she was preparing to recommend a set of medical marijuana regulations to the City Council next month "but with the shoes dropping with this frequency, I think we are all in truth in need of California Supreme Court authority."

The state high court has agreed to review a handful of lower court rulings on medical marijuana, but a ruling may be at least a year away.

Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Author: Maura Dolan, The Los Angeles Times
Published: March 2, 2012
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Times
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
URL: http://drugsense.org/url/yXqrrfia

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Comment #13 posted by afterburner on March 05, 2012 at 08:41:07 PT
Kudos, museman
I just finished reading your comment #6 as I was interrupted by a call Saturday. The text was worth the wait, and I'm sure your new book will be an inspiration to many, just as your posts here at cannabisnews.com are.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #12 posted by museman on March 05, 2012 at 07:13:01 PT
guys...(and gals)
Thanks.

If anyone wants to read the book without buying it -because they are un-wealthy like me- just let me know



[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #11 posted by Storm Crow on March 05, 2012 at 06:45:48 PT
Sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander...
I would like to see the reaction if they demanded that pharmacies manufacture their pills on site, too! Ir groceries grow their own foods! That would make things fair and end my objections to this!

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #10 posted by ekim on March 04, 2012 at 15:28:03 PT
good going Museman
what a great example for your family and the rest of us.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #9 posted by FoM on March 03, 2012 at 17:53:09 PT
Museman
I second Hope's Congratulations.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #8 posted by Hope on March 03, 2012 at 17:30:23 PT
Museman
Congratulations on getting your book published.

How exciting it must be to see your words printed and bound in a professionally designed cover.

Congratulations! I so hope it's a success for you. But it's a huge success already, in my mind, just being published. That's so great.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #7 posted by runruff on March 03, 2012 at 15:10:00 PT
Runruff, inspiration?
Congrats my friend!

I have always been told I was full of hot air. This kind of narrows my choices down to inflating weather balloons or writing a book.

I decided I did not want to be remembered as "Jerry the Balloon blower" so I endeavored to write a book. It was surprisingly easy so I writ a few more.

I have read plenty of your stuff, Museman and I am looking forward to reading your book even though I am afraid it will be over my head.

Good Luck!

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #6 posted by museman on March 03, 2012 at 10:33:48 PT
OT - other liberties
While people focus on their favorite issues, voices, and a few hackles raise in the political arena, the power of the Rulers continues unabated. Armageddon is averted over seas -temporarily- other than the fact that Israel seems bound and determined to have their own small empire - that subjugates all non-established palestinian/arab peoples as their labor force. In Israel, a Palestinian housekeeper is about the same as an illegal Mexican immigrant housekeeper here.

The 1% who rule there, also rule here. Same wealth, same values, same spirit.

SOPA gets defeated so the ball gets thrown from the political arena to the corporate one. Corporations can arbitrarily create 'rules and regulations' tantamount to censorship and denial of services.

I recently published my first novel. Book one in a series. It took me getting over a 25 year old writers block to do it (thanks to runruff, whose work inspired me to finish my own)

For sometime I offered a rough draft of it for free on my site.

Anyway, I spent almost as much time formatting, proofing, and searching for publishers, as I did writing. So I found a couple of places that fit into my budget -($0) and placed my novel there to see what would happen.

I didn't expect much, the competition is steep. The book has only been available for a few weeks, and now I receive news from my publisher that PayPal is threatening to censor the use of their services for various controversial content like mature, sexual, - and content that alludes to various behavior and content not considered appropriate for mediocre minds (my word). Meaning that if you want to buy or sell an ebook that has sexuality in it (determined by PayPal) you may be denied the use of their services.

Now I intended to write a PG novel, but in one scene I describe a horrible character who says and does some pretty graphically horror type stuff, and some brief dialogue with some hints of the sexual practices of the Sami (the villains in my story). Not explicit like 'he ran his hand down her thigh' type stuff, but enough for an experienced mind to connect the dots.

So as I publish I find that because of this one chapter (which in my years of reading sci-fi and fantasy is hardly comparable to many many stories that included some elements of the love/sex/romance) I have to list my novel as 'unsuited for young readers.'

Well, that's not too bad, as there is probably not a lot of 'young readers' who could appreciate my writing style, but now PayPal is arbitrarily deciding to censor anything they deem has such content. So is Visa, Discover, American Express, and Master Card.

So the catch 22 -one that all future wanna-be 'occupiers' might want to check up on, is the fact that the 1% have us all by the gonads, because we agreed to let them do it!

We frackin' agreed! We signed our names to the various 'contracts' that go along with the so-called 'services' of the government and its puppet master corporations and wealthy one percenters, the 12 controlling families, and ultimately Luciferian characters like in my novel (that people can only handle as fiction). We signed our agreement to the rule of law, the mastery of wealth, and the ultimate demise of all progressive thought and liberty at the hands of our 'betters.' Those 'more worthy' to dictate how we live our lives for this brief flash of existence.

The contract with our government starts with the social security number and escalates from there, By the time we have signed our name to the contractual agreements to have a drivers license, we are so bound by our signatures to serve the Republic more than ourselves, there is no 'legal' escape.

The only solution is 100% denial of the authority and power of the rulers by the people. Simple, but ultimate and true.

As long as the people continue to feel they cannot 'break the contract' with the corrupt government -for whatever reason or justification, the power and control is only growing.

When the protesters get out there in the streets, the first thing the Status Quo does, is start making laws and ordinances to justify things like police brutality, fines and imprisonments, and little things like a 'designated protest area' so that the movement can be controlled and squashed.

The only reason why the cannabis prohibition hasn't ended up with every cannabis user in prison or worse, is simply because there are too many of us.

So most of the ones who get busted, will just become payees to the system, paying hundreds and thousands of dollars to keep their slavery -mistaken as liberty- intact.

The new tactic of 'law' is making you pay. Now in America, every 'crime' is punishable by fines and fees -even before you get convicted. And if you beat the rap, the state still makes out because they keep about 30% of bail, fines, etc, even if you are found innocent.

Justice is exponentially linked to the amount of money in your bank account. You got enough, you can design your own justice!

America, wake up dammit.

LEGALIZE FREEDOM

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #5 posted by runruff on March 03, 2012 at 07:36:51 PT
My trip to Titian.
The last time I traveled there I took the Mothership. The Ship's computer just nag, nag ,nagged all the way there!

Next time I am taking the Fathership!

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #4 posted by runruff on March 03, 2012 at 06:17:19 PT
OT: Living is not in tents on the Moon; Titian!
That is right! On The Moon, Titian, it is not necessary to bring a tent to Titian because there are so many inhabitable caves there!

The thing to do is get there early and set up a cave decorating service and be ready to go when the Sooners arrive!

Remember, you heard it from me first!

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by FoM on March 03, 2012 at 04:19:47 PT
Nevada's Pot Distribution Law Unconstitutional
Nevada's Pot Distribution Law Called Unconstitutional

March 2, 20112

URL: http://www.lvrj.com/news/nevada-s-medical-marijuana-distribution-law-ruled-unconstitutional-141246893.html

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by Hope on March 02, 2012 at 21:09:44 PT
Hire some people.
Rent some property.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #1 posted by runruff on March 02, 2012 at 15:19:01 PT
Marijuana from unknown sources?
The city fathers are wise and correct to protect the people in this way. Someone may otherwise imbibe pot from and unknown source and Die!

This is serious! All operating pot shops that have been dispensing pot from unknown sources lo' these many years have taken countless lives, all in the name of profits!

These so called "vendors" have callously cracked the proverbial egg and slammed it onto a sizzling hot skillet and fried brains everywhere! People are misled into believing that a poisonous plant could could somehow miraculously cause relief!

I say it is good and a blessing to have so many wise and informed people thinking for me. Thinking is not my strongest point!

[ Post Comment ]


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