Pubdate: Tue, 15 Jul 2014
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Veronica Rocha
Page: AA1

POT MARKET FACES CHALLENGE

City Attorney to Request a Temporary Restraining Order Against Boyle 
Heights Marijuana Sellers.

The Los Angeles city attorney is seeking an injunction to stop what's 
being dubbed as the city's first ever cannabis-centric farmers 
market, which opened for business over the Fourth of July weekend.

The medical marijuana market opened from July 4-6 inside a Boyle 
Heights warehouse and continued to operate this past weekend, 
following its successful start.

But City Atty. Mike Feuer says his office will request a temporary 
restraining order to stop operations.

"We're fighting to stop this end-run around the will of the voters 
who enacted Proposition D," Feuer said in a statement. "We allege 
these events also violate city land-use law and are causing a public 
nuisance. We will do everything we can to put a halt to them."

Feuer's action alleges the market didn't comply with requirements 
outlined in Proposition D, a ballot measure passed last year that set 
up legal parameters for marijuana dispensaries to remain open.

Feuer added that the market reportedly created a public nuisance, 
resulting in accessibility and safety issues.

The market, Feuer said, constituted "an unauthorized, unpermitted use 
of the property" because its operation did not obtained required 
zoning approvals.

The operation also "violates California's unfair competition law and 
detracts from the quality of life of the community and unjustly 
enriches the defendants."

David Welch, who represents the market's operators, said the city's 
latest move probably doesn't comply with Proposition D and is 
misrepresenting the law.

He said the market's executive director, Paizley Bradbury, who is 
named by city officials as Paizley Gabrielle Lee, spoke earlier 
Monday to an engineer with the city's Building and Safety Department 
who told her a permit was not necessary.

Welch said the city is making compliance impossible for his client, 
even though she is following the law.

Organizers of the California Heritage Market, which was confined to 
the warehouse directly behind the West Coast Collective dispensary in 
an industrial zone, opened the farmers market only to card-carrying 
medical marijuana patients.

The market quickly became successful, drawing medical marijuana 
patients hoping to buy products directly from growers instead of a dispensary.

At the time, city and police officials did not publicly object to the 
event. But late Monday, Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for Feuer, said that 
while the warehouse "is in an industrial area," there is public 
property surrounding it.

He said the market affected other businesses by blocking sidewalks 
and had "a big impact on law enforcement resources, too."

A preliminary hearing on the injunction is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. 
Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom