In a rare and almost unprecedented decision, the California Court of Appeals affirmed the legitimacy of storefront medical marijuana dispensaries and also answered the question of whether or not every member of a collective or cooperative must participate in the cultivation of its medical marijuana. The decision came out of the Second Appellate Court in Los Angeles.
Until this point, only one decision unambiguously dealt with medical marijuana dispensaries which came out last November 9th in the fourth district in a case that was brought by a collective in Riverside County. The decision ruled that cities did have the right to decide whether or not collectives or cooperatives could be regulated or outlawed through zoning.
The latest decision answers a different question but is still very positive and a step forward as it will get much easier for people to buy weed online Canada for medical purposes. If things stood they way they are now and these decisions were both upheld by the Supreme Court cities and counties may be able to regulate dispensaries through zoning but would not be able to disallow them just because they are dispensaries which were a huge gray area up until now because none of the laws of the state specifically mentions them or deals with the issues of dispensaries directly. Until now, the two medical marijuana laws give patients the right to form collectives and cooperatives and to transport and cultivate marijuana for medical purposes but does not allow members to do so for profit.
Another gray area the law deals with this whether or not every patient must participate in the cultivation of the collective or cooperative groups medical marijuana that is exchanged amongst those patients. Even the states Attorney General Kamla Harris our states chief lawmaker an advocate for medical marijuana and patients’ rights, was of the opinion that every member of the group had to.
However, if you think about it, this point of view is illogical. The entire reason for joining a collective or cooperative group of other medical marijuana patients for many is because of the fact that they are disabled or that they do not have the means, away or the ability to cultivate themselves.
Although the decision is great it is not as far-reaching as it may seem. If the Supreme Court should decide to review the case if Los Angeles decides to appeal and if the appeal is accepted, the decision will essentially become null and void. This happened recently with two appeals court decisions, one of them being the decision mentioned above from November 9th, 2011
These decisions are the two that everyone has been waiting for in the medical marijuana community. To review, the supreme court has decided to rule on two decisions that say cities do have the right to regulate medical marijuana collectives through zoning and another that says cities cannot regulate the number of dispensaries using a lottery system to decide something that is illegal under federal law.
Ironically, I was denied a business license a day before this by a judge in a superior court who ruled my case wasn’t “Ripe” at the moment? If it isn’t ripe now, when will it ever be? I know I’m right which was affirmed by this decision yet superior court judges often rule this way. I have to admit that I originally expected this decision and we planned to win on appeal when it came to our dispensary which we recently closed in Los Angeles County.
However, we received direct pressure from the DEA and the Justice Department and decided to close. If it wasn’t for them, I would’ve still been operating as I have some clients that have lost their superior court cases that have never shut down who ended up winning their right to stay open on appeal, I guess the judges take more time to review cases on that level. However, none of these clients have had the direct pressure that we received from the feds.
