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Medical Marijuana Advocates File Lawsuit Challenging L.A. Dispensary Ordinance |
Los Angeles, CA -- The country's largest medical marijuana advocacy organization, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles today, claiming that certain provisions in a recently adopted regulatory ordinance would shut down virtually all dispensaries in the city. The local medical marijuana law passed by the City Council and signed by Mayor Villaraigosa on February 3rd requires dispensaries to find a new location within 7 days after the ordinance takes effect. In order to comply with the ordinance, dispensaries must be located at least 1,000 feet from schools, parks, libraries, churches and other so-called "sensitive uses," and cannot abut or be across the street from any residence, which excludes almost all commercial areas in the city.
"The dispensary ordinance passed by the Los Angeles City Council might have been reasonable, if not for some onerous provisions," said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who filed the lawsuit today. "The requirement to find a new location within 7 days is completely unreasonable and undermines the due process of otherwise legal medical marijuana dispensaries." Despite spending more than two years to develop regulations, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance without maps to show where dispensaries could locate in order to comply with the law.
Among other restrictive provisions, the Los Angeles regulations require that dispensaries "notify the City Clerk within one week after the effective date of this ordinance of their intention to register...at an identified location." The lawsuit's plaintiffs, Venice Beach Care Center and PureLife Alternative Wellness Center, two dispensaries that have operated in Los Angeles since before the city's moratorium, call the 7-day requirement to find a new site unnecessarily prohibitive. Plaintiffs further argue that without the assistance of maps such a requirement is inconceivable.
"We want to work with the city to comply with its regulations, but such unreasonable requirements make compliance impossible," said plaintiff Yamileth Bolanos of PureLife Alternative Wellness Center. "We are more than willing to negotiate a compromise that would cut short costly litigation." The plaintiffs understand that the City of Los Angeles is facing a budget shortfall of more than $200 million and want to strike a fair balance between the concerns of elected officials and the needs of thousands of area patients that rely on local dispensaries. Given the city's economic crisis, many also question the rationale of expensive enforcement action recently taken by the Los Angeles City Attorney.
Over the past few years, more than 40 California localities have adopted ordinances regulating dispensaries. According to advocates, the Los Angeles regulatory ordinance is one of the most recent and most restrictive in the state. Advocates claim that certain provisions in the local law threaten to shut down all of the city's dispensaries and amount to a de facto ban. "The whole point of the moratorium was to study the impact of restrictions like these," said ASA spokesperson Kris Hermes. "Unfortunately, a sufficient assessment never happened." The Planning Department was unable to provide residential buffer zone maps prior to the passage of the ordinance and, according to city staff, may never be able to produce them.
Both plaintiff dispensaries have operated since 2006 without any negative incidents, criminal or otherwise, and have established good relations with neighbors. A recent study commissioned by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, comparing the number of crimes in 2009 at the city's banks and medical marijuana dispensaries, found that 71 robberies had occurred at the more than 350 banks in the city, compared to 47 robberies at the more than 500 medical marijuana facilities. Chief Beck observed that, "banks are more likely to get robbed than medical marijuana dispensaries," and that the claim that dispensaries attract crime "doesn't really bear out."
Further information:
Lawsuit filed today by Americans for Safe Access: http://AmericansForSafeAccess.org/downloads/LA_Ordinance_Lawsuit.pdf
City of Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensary ordinance: http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2008/08-0923_misc_01-19-2010.pdf |
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California Insurer Offers Medical Marijuana Coverage |
A California insurance company now offers coverage for "all aspects" of the medical marijuana industry, including liability, workers' compensation, and operations related to growing pot.
Statewide Insurance Services of Rancho-Cordova said its new coverage plan, launched Monday, extends to all 50 states, even though medical marijuana is only legal in 14, The Sacramento Bee reported.
"Now that we can offer (services) in all 50 states, we can start the minute they go legal, without delay," Mike Aberle, director of Statewide's Medical Marijuana Specialty Division, told the newspaper.
The company will also cover motor vehicles used to transport marijuana and product loss.
Medical marijuana dispensaries can expect to pay $650 to $25,000 a year on premiums, depending on the size and type of operation. Typical policies have annual premiums in the $1,000- to-$4,000 range, Aberle said.
California voters approved marijuana for medical use in 1996. The number of dispensaries rose dramatically in 2009 when the Obama administration said it would not prosecute law-abiding marijuana growers and sellers. There are an estimated 2,000 dispensaries in the state.
Medical marijuana is also legal in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. |
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DEA Can Track Pot Growers With Mobile Devices |
By Jeremiah Vandermeer, Cannabis Culture - Tuesday, January 19 2010
CANNABIS CULTURE - A US Federal court says the Drug Enforcement Administration has the right to attach mobile tracking devices to the vehicles of suspected marijuana growers.
A 9th Circuit appeals court in Portland Oregon upheld a guilty verdict of marijuana manufacturing and conspiracy against Juan Pineda-Moreno, who appealed the courts decision on grounds his constitutional rights were violated by DEA agents who attached small electronic transmitters to his SUV on multiple occasions to track his movements.
According to court documents, a DEA special agent "noticed a group of men purchasing a large quantity of fertilizer from a Home Depot" on May 28, 2007 and followed Pineda-Moreno's 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee as it left the store, "recognizing the fertilizer as a type frequently used to grow marijuana."
In June, agents learned the men had "purchased large quantities of groceries, irrigation equipment, and deer repellant at several stores" and traveled in Pineda-Moreno's Jeep. After learning the Pineda-Moreno's address, the DEA intensified their investigation.
"Over a four-month period, agents repeatedly monitored Pineda-Moreno's Jeep using various types of mobile tracking devices," court's opinion papers say. "Each device was about the size of a bar of soap and had a magnet affixed to its side, allowing it to be attached to the underside of a car."
"Agents installed these devices on the underside of Pineda-Moreno's Jeep on seven different occasions. On four of these occasions, the vehicle was parked on a public street in front of Pineda-Moreno's home. On one occasion, it was located in a public parking lot. On the other two occasions, the Jeep was parked in Pineda-Moreno's driveway, a few feet from the side of his trailer. The driveway leading up to the trailer was open; agents did not observe any fence, gate, or 'No Trespassing' signs indicating that they were not to enter the property. [...] Once in place, the tracking devices recorded and logged the precise movements of the vehicle. Some of these devices permitted agents to access the information remotely, while others required them to remove the device from the vehicle and download the information directly."
On September 12, 2007, DEA agents pulled Pineda-Moreno's vehicle over after received information from one of the devices indicating he was leaving a suspected grow show. Agents said they smelled marijuana, though none was found in the vehicle or on Pineda-Moreno and his three passengers. After contacting immigration authorities, who arrested the three other men, DEA agents searched Pineda-Moreno's home and found two garbage bags full of pot.
The court ruled that Pineda-Moreno' could not show "that the agents invaded an area in which he possessed a reasonable expectation of privacy when they walked up his driveway and attached the tracking device to his vehicle. Because the agents did not invade such an area, they conducted no search, and Pineda-Moreno can assert no Fourth Amendment violation."
"Pineda-Moreno makes no claim that the agents used the tracking devices to intrude into a constitutionally protected area," Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain said in the court decision. "The only information the agents obtained from the tracking devices was a log of the locations where Pineda-Moreno's car traveled, information the agents could have obtained by following the car. Insofar as [Pineda-Moreno's] complaint appears to be simply that scientific devices such as the [tracking devices] enabled the police to be more effective in detecting crime, it simply has no constitutional foundation. We have never equated police efficiency with unconstitutionality and decline to do so now." [...] We conclude that the police did not conduct an impermissible search of Pineda-Moreno's car by monitoring its location with mobile tracking devices."
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Sheriff: marijuana arrest for Olympia WA official |
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Thurston County Sheriff Dan Kimball says Olympia Mayor Pro Tem Joe Hyer has been arrested for investigation of marijuana trafficking.
Kimball tells The Olympian that Hyer was arrested Thursday evening at his home after a monthlong investigation by the Thurston County Narcotics Task Force. The sheriff says a confidential informant has purchased marijuana from Hyer twice in the past two months during controlled buys.
Kimball said Hyer was being booked into the county jail on Thursday night. It was not immediately known if Hyer was represented by a lawyer.
Earlier this week, Thurston County commissioners informally chose Hyer to succeed Robin Hunt as county treasurer. Hunt is leaving for a new job before the Dec. 31 expiration of her four-year term. Hyer's formal appointment as treasurer is scheduled for March 1.
Hyer said he would remain on the City Council during the appointment period. |
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