Lake Forest asks Supreme Court to review pot ruling

LAKE FOREST – City officials on Tuesday announced that they will seek the California Supreme Court's review on a ruling by the Fourth District Court of Appeal that last week said cities cannot shut down a medical marijuana dispensary that cultivates its own marijuana. "It's a decision that impacts every city," said Jeff Dunn, an attorney representing Lake Forest in its efforts to clear nearly 40 medical marijuana dispensaries from the city over the last two years. "It's the only decision that says a city cannot ban a dispensary for being a dispensary. It's the only court case that has gone in this direction."

For more than two years medical marijuana supporters have rallied at City Hall in Lake Forest to keep the dispensaries open. In two years 38 operated within the city.

Ruling in favor of Evergreen Holistic, a former Lake Forest medical marijuana collective, justices struck down a city injunction by a trial judge on the medical marijuana dispensary, saying the city cannot shut down dispensaries as a wholesale nuisance.
Judges said that a collective that includes a dispensary function — growing its own pot — does not constitute a nuisance.
In its ruling, the three-judge panel said medical marijuana dispensaries can only sell pot from where it's cultivated and cannot be brought from somewhere else and dispensed at a store. The ruling is the latest in a string of cases that attempts to interpret the state's medical marijuana law and provide guidance for cities and counties that are trying to curtail pot shops.
Dunn said the city had formally requested the Court of Appeal not to go forward with its decision in this case because three previous cases are already headed to the California Supreme Court.
Dunn points to cases last fall such as a Los Angeles-based appellate court that in November struck down Long Beach's attempt to license pot stores, ruling the local ordinance conflicted with federal law.
And another appellate court upheld Riverside's right to close and prohibit dispensaries despite the state's medical marijuana law. A third appellate court ruling related to the city of Dana Point concluded that dispensary customers can't sue a city for banning medical marijuana, only a dispensary can do that.
"When you have decisions that are in conflict, the Supreme Court can settle the differences," he said.
The city will file their petition by the end of the month. At that point the Supreme Court will have 60 days to decide what happens next. If the court decides to review it, it will either review it with the previous cases, review it after the previous cases or make it a non-published decision — meaning that the appellate court ruling would only apply to Lake Forest and could not be used as a foundation for decisions in other court cases.
What makes the recent case against Evergreen Holistic, one of the last dispensaries in Lake Forest to be shutdown by federal agents last fall, most concerning is threat to the public, Dunn said.
"Across the state where we've had large grow operations, there have been lots of crime including murders," he said. "This is a serious public safety risk. It's not whether medical marijuana should be used. It's about unscrupulous operators who have hijacked the California medical marijuana law for their own profit."
Dunn points to last week's raid by a drug task force and sheriff's deputies on Thursday — just 24 hours after the appellate court's Wednesday ruling — at Charles Café, a medical marijuana storefront that continually defied police after being ordered to shutdown.
The raid resulted in the arrest of two men and included a recovery of 12 pounds of marijuana and $35,000. Task force members also raided a home in Newport Beach and one in Irvine connected to the Lake Forest dispensary.
"To say cities can't use their public safety authority to fight this is a huge concern," Dunn said. "This is the example. This is real life. This is exactly what Lake Forest is trying to combat."

By ERIKA I. RITCHIE / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Contact the writer: 949-454-7307 or eritchie@ocregister.com