Pubdate: Fri, 31 Aug 2012
Source: Desert Sun, The (Palm Springs, CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Desert Sun
Contact: http://local2.thedesertsun.com/mailer/opinionwrap.php
Website: http://www.mydesert.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1112
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Author: Blake Herzog

RANCHO MIRAGE LOSES BID TO KEEP POT DISPENSARY CLOSED

RANCHO MIRAGE - Rancho Mirage City Attorney Steve Quintanilla 
confirmed Thursday the city lost a bid for a preliminary injunction 
to keep a medical marijuana dispensary closed.

He said he will take the matter to the City Council during a special 
meeting scheduled Tuesday, and seek direction on the city's next move.

"It will likely be an immediate appeal, going to the Court of Appeals 
or having the case removed to federal court," he said.

An order sent to his office by the Riverside County Superior Court 
cleared up the confusion created Wednesday when the court website 
first said the injunction had been granted by Judge John Evans, 
before it was changed without explanation.

"I'm just very, very disappointed in the sloppiness of the court on 
this issue," he said. "I just hope this doesn't happen in criminal cases."

Rancho Mirage Safe Access Wellness Center, 72-067 Highway 111, plans 
to reopen 10 a.m. Monday, general manager Alice Jensen said Thursday. 
It had been closed after Evans issued a temporary restraining order 
against the city Aug. 6.

"We're just gonna open up, let our patients know we're there, invite 
you guys (the media) to come in and take a few pictures, and see what 
goes on from there, because there is a bigger picture," she said.

That "bigger picture" would involve offering other wellness-related 
services at the same location, she said.

She said the dispensary, incorporated as All Patients Desert 
Cooperative, chose Rancho Mirage for its central location, and served 
about 600 patients since it opened in June.

"What everybody said when they first came in was, 'You're so close to 
home! Palm Springs is too far. Thousand Palms is too far.'"

She said a few of the clients were disabled, and "all of them were 
able to get into the building safely."

The city code compliance department denied the dispensary a 
certificate of occupancy for its distinctive round building because 
it lacked a handicapped parking space and other accommodations for 
the disabled.

"I'm perfectly willing to put up the sign and get the blue paint for 
a parking space, but they wanted me to repave the whole parking lot, 
and that's going to cost $50,000," Jensen said.

The city's court case against the dispensary hinges on its operating 
without a certificate of occupancy or business license.

The defense argued, apparently successfully, that those city 
requirements should not apply because officials were not going to 
treat the dispensary equally under that law.

Evans' order gives Safe Access 90 days to correct any deficiencies 
found by city officials under local or state safety regulations, 
"except as it relates to a certificate of occupancy or a business license."

The Rancho Mirage City Council voted 4-0 to outlaw storefront 
dispensaries in February 2011, but the ban was tossed by a superior 
court judge in a case filed by the first one known to have opened here.

That decision is under appeal by the city, and the dispensary has 
issued a series of permit applications to the city.

An employee of another Rancho Mirage dispensary, The Spot Collective, 
has been cited by the sheriff's department and has a court date next 
month. A fourth medical marijuana collective is suing the city for 
denying permits but has never tried to open.

"I don't know why they are so concerned about opening in Rancho 
Mirage," Mayor Pro Tem Gordon Moller said Thursday. "This is a big valley."

Palm Springs is the only Coachella Valley city which allows 
storefront dispensaries, and has capped the number at four. 
Unauthorized ones have surfaced in unincorporated Riverside County, 
as well as in Palm Springs and elsewhere.

The state Supreme Court is expected to rule by early next year on 
whether cities can prohibit dispensaries.

Moller said the council is likely to authorize Quintanilla to move 
forward with an appeal on Tuesday, and he remains opposed to allowing 
dispensaries, citing a fear they could attract crime.

"Why should Rancho Mirage allow them? Freedom of speech? Freedom of 
enterprise? It's not the kind of enterprise I want in my city, and by 
that I mean it's not the kind of enterprise most of the residents 
want," he said.

Mayor Scott Hines, who did not vote on the dispensary ban because he 
had declared a conflict of interest on the issue, took a different position.

"While I am adamant that our city protect its land use authority, 
Sacramento's unwillingness to pass comprehensive laws on medical 
marijuana continues to subject small towns to these legal quagmires," 
he said. "Enough already. Legalize it, regulate it, tax it and let us 
get on with running our city."

But he appears to be in a council minority, so the fight seems poised 
to continue.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom