Court Ruling Bolsters Local Efforts to Ban Marijuana Dispensaries

A state Supreme Court ruling Monday upholding the city of Riverside's ban on storefront medical marijuana dispensaries will likely buttress similar ordinances, prompting one San Juan Capistrano councilman to explore options for keeping the city free of dispensaries.

“As a parent and concerned resident, I certainly do not want marijuana dispensaries in San Juan Capistrano,” said City Councilman Derek Reeve. “I plan to meet with staff to see what steps need to be taken, if any, to ensure this continued prohibition in our community.”

Currently, there are no medical marijuana dispensaries in San Juan Capistrano. The city uses its business licensing process to make sure no dispensaries, which are prohibited by federal law, are allowed to operate in the city, said Cathy Salcedo, the city’s executive services manager.

“The Council approved an ordinance in 2007, No. 927, establishing interim zoning restrictions in order to conduct a zoning study regarding the establishment of such dispensaries," Salcedo said via email. “The City Attorney ultimately weighed in that the City could not issue a business license that is inconsistent with Federal law, which prohibited such use.”

Nearby Orange County cities have been at the forefront of the legal battle to ban them. Currently Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach and Dana Point have enacted bans on dispensaries. In all, about 200 jurisdictions throughout California have such bans on their books.

Lake Forest Mayor Scott Voigts hailed the ruling, which could affect the city's efforts to keep the Evergreen Holistic Collective closed.

"We are very pleased that the California Supreme Court has upheld the city's right to regulate the use of its land," Voigts said. "Throughout this journey, we have consistently championed local public safety and the city's right to enforce its zoning laws on behalf of the people of Lake Forest. We have worked hard to rid the community of illegal marijuana stores and are gratified our efforts have been validated."

Attorney David Welch, who represents Evergreen Holistic Collective, said the state high court's ruling may not fully apply to Evergreen.

"It's different in Evergreen," Welch said, adding that unlike in the Riverside case, marijuana at the Lake Forest dispensary was being cultivated on site and no doctor was available issuing prescriptions.

Still, Welch said, the ruling on the Riverside case "will have an effect on how they rule on Evergreen."

Attorney Scott Smith, who represents Lake Forest, said he was "really pleased" with today's ruling.

"The decision was completely consistent with the Lake Forest world view, which is that there's a body of state law (on medical marijuana), but it did not seem to deny traditional land use authority. The Supreme Court landed straight there."

City officials have the right to use local ordinances to regulate or ban the medical marijuana dispensaries and state law does not preempt that right, Smith said.

Smith argued that it doesn't matter whether marijuana was being cultivated on-site in the Evergreen collective.

"It's worse," Smith said of the marijuana cultivation. "And it's irrelevant whether it's cultivated or retail sales, etc., etc. The Supreme Court has left the authority to the cities."

In February of last year, a panel of Fourth District Court of Appeal justices in Santa Ana overturned a lower court judge's injunction shutting down Evergreen in May 2010.

The appellate justices in Santa Ana ruled that city officials may use their nuisance ordinance to regulate the dispensaries and collectives but can't just declare them a nuisance, thereby banning them.

The state Supreme Court referred to a ruling from appellate justices in Santa Ana that sided with medical marijuana advocates challenging Anaheim's ordinances, Smith noted.

"They did acknowledge the local ruling in Anaheim was wrong," Smith said.

The state high court's 44-page ruling was in response to an appeal by Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center Inc., which sought to challenge zoning regulations put in place by Riverside prohibiting cannabis clubs or collectives from operating outlets where individuals with prescriptions for medical marijuana could purchase it.

The Riverside case was argued in February.

Five other cases stemming from challenges to regulations against medical marijuana dispensaries are pending before the court.

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-- City News Service contributed to this report.