Pubdate: Thu, 19 Jun 2014
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Teri Figueroa
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

SAN MARCOS CHASING OUT POT SHOP

Upcoming hearing may be moot, since person at Jungle Meds said 
medical marijuana dispensary is closed

SAN MARCOS - San Marcos appears to have been successful in its effort 
to force the shutdown of a medical marijuana dispensary that opened 
earlier this year on Grand Avenue.

In a hearing slated for Friday, the city is asking Vista Superior 
Court Judge Earl Maas to issue a preliminary injunction barring the 
shop from doing business - at least until trial, should the case get that far.

But the shop, Jungle Meds, may no longer be in business. A man at the 
San Marcos store on Wednesday said the dispensary had closed for good 
and all product had been moved out. Its website now advertises 
delivery services in North County.

Medical pot shops have been banned in San Marcos since 2006.

In April, city officials learned that Jungle Meds had opened on Grand 
Avenue, and promptly notified the businesses that it had to shut 
down, according to documents San Marcos filed in Vista Superior Court 
last month.

As of May, the shop was still open when an undercover sheriff's 
deputy went in and bought medical marijuana.

No one from Jungle Meds management responded to messages left by U-T 
San Diego. The company's attorney could not be immediately reached 
for comment. No formal responses to the suit have been filed by the defendants.

This is the fifth pot shop San Marcos has sued to shut down. The city 
won the other four cases; the latest was in February 2011.

California has allowed marijuana for medicinal use after Proposition 
215 passed in 1996. But contentious legal battles have followed on a 
number of fronts, including with regard to storefront dispensaries 
where marijuana is sold.

In May 2013, in a case involving the city of Riverside, the state 
Supreme Court ruled that local governments can outlaw the 
dispensaries if they choose to.

Even before the ruling, a number of cities - including San Marcos - 
had adopted ordinances banning pot shops.

San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond said Tuesday that while he personally is 
fine with medical marijuana, the city is caught in a tight spot 
between state laws that allow for its use versus federal laws that 
make marijuana use illegal.

"Because of the discrepancies, we have these Kool-Aid stands - pot 
shops - cropping up in the city," Desmond said.

None of the North County cities along the state Route 78 corridor 
from Escondido to Oceanside permit medical marijuana dispensaries, 
although one shop remains open in Oceanside, pending a legal battle 
and a possible vote later this month by its City Council.

Other local governments do allow the dispensaries, including the 
county (since 2010) and city of San Diego, where the City Council 
voted earlier this year to allow 36 shops to operate in the city, but 
with restrictions.

According to documents filed in the Jungle Meds case, the city 
learned from the Sheriff's Department in April that the store was 
doing business in a suite on Grand Avenue, a little more than a block 
east of South Rancho Santa Fe Road.

A code compliance officer went to the shop April 21 and issued a citation.

When the officer returned days later, Jungle Meds was still open for business.

In May, an undercover sheriff's officer went to the Jungle Meds site 
and purchased marijuana. Later that month, on May 23, the city filed 
suit to shut down the shop as an illegal business.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom