Riverside has long prohibited medical marijuana dispensaries. Now officials may add recreational pot businesses to the ban -- at least temporarily. Since November, when California voters legalized adult use of marijuana, the Riverside City Council has not decided whether to allow, tax and regulate pot cultivation, manufacturing and sales. On Tuesday, July 25, council members will consider saying no to pot businesses until they have more information on how state regulations will look and what other Inland and Southern California communities are doing. [continues 469 words]
Some Aren't Concerned About Measure A, Which Would Allow 10 Dispensaries; Others Fear More Crime, Drugs Getting to Kids Riverside resident Abraham Bueno isn't crazy about the idea that a medical marijuana dispensary could open on the other side of a fence across the street from his home. Nor is Emery Osgood enthused about possibly having a dispensary close to his solar pool heating company in an industrial park off Columbia Avenue. But Rob Arbagey isn't worried about such a facility moving in near his beer- and wine-making supply shop, also off Columbia. [continues 1186 words]
Officials say the facilities provide an important service and haven't caused complaints, and many residents seem unconcerned. Inside a squat, dimly-lit building so close to Palm Springs International Airport you want to duck when a plane comes in, customers are waiting for medical marijuana. They trickle in, one or two at a time, show their ID and doctor's recommendation at a lobby window, then sit until they're buzzed in through the security doors to where the product is kept. [continues 1269 words]
Several Inland Cities Have Spent Hundreds of Thousands Fighting Pot Shops, While State Polls Showing Growing Voter Support Polls show California voters back medical and even recreational marijuana. And they may get the chance to legalize it in 2016. But a handful of Inland cities are moving in the opposite direction, spending at least $1.85 million in legal battles to shut down dispensaries. Moreno Valley, Riverside, Jurupa Valley, Upland and Riverside County each reported spending between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to enforce their dispensary bans. [continues 1391 words]
Initiative would legalize and regulate a handful of pot dispensaries; city argues it would violate state, federal law Less than a month after medical-marijuana supporters learned they had collected enough signatures to get their measure on Riverside's ballot in 2015, the city has filed a lawsuit to stop the county registrar from putting the issue before voters. Riverside currently bans all marijuana dispensaries through its zoning code. Last year, the state Supreme Court sided with the city in a legal challenge to the ban. [continues 571 words]
Medical-marijuana supporters trying to qualify a ballot measure allowing a limited number of dispensaries in Riverside have about 180 days to collect signatures. About 12,000 voters must sign their petitions to put it on the ballot in June 2015 the city's next regular election or about 18,000 voters to get a special election called sooner. Proponents are training volunteers and may begin circulating petitions as soon as this weekend, said Jason Thompson, an attorney representing Riverside Safe Access, the group backing the measure. [continues 228 words]
A Proposal From Riverside Safe Access Would Set Rules to Allow Handful of Dispensaries to Legally Open in Riverside A group of medical marijuana supporters is planning a ballot measure that would legalize, regulate and tax a small number of dispensaries in Riverside, which led the fight to ban such facilities. On Wednesday, Oct. 16, Riverside attorney Jason Thompson filed paperwork seeking permission to gather signatures to place the initiative before voters. Thompson represents Riverside Safe Access, a local group of about a dozen authorized users and proponents of medical marijuana. [continues 697 words]
With Storefront-Style Dispensaries Shuttered, Riverside Seeks to Stop Pot Delivery Services Arranging home delivery of medical marijuana may have been as easy as phoning for pizza up to now, but Riverside officials want to put a stop to those special deliveries. Last month the California Supreme Court upheld cities' rights to ban storefront marijuana dispensaries, and last week Riverside officials announced that all dispensaries they knew of had shut their doors. But the ban in the city zoning code didn't address mobile dispensaries, and that's where Riverside attorneys say operators of some now-closed brick and mortar locations have put their efforts following the court ruling. [continues 643 words]
As federal authorities have cracked down on Inland medical marijuana dispensaries, including recent raids in Murrieta, Temecula and Lake Elsinore, one dispensary's supporters have tried an interesting gambit to keep it from happening to them. Attorney J. David Nick is defending Riverside's Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center in a lawsuit filed by the city of Riverside that is now under review by the state Supreme Court. In response to Riverside City Attorney Greg Priamos' announcement that he and police Chief Sergio Diaz had asked U.S. attorneys to help enforce the federal marijuana ban, Nick in March filed a writ asking the state Supreme Court to block the city from collaborating with the feds. [continues 326 words]
Two top Riverside officials are asking U.S. attorneys to enforce the federal marijuana ban in their city, as the feds have in other Southern California communities during a recent crackdown on medical marijuana operations. Medical marijuana dispensaries are forbidden by Riverside city zoning. Since 2010, the city has been seeking to close the facilities by filing lawsuits in civil court, and City Attorney Greg Priamos said this week he's been able to shut down about 30 dispensaries. [continues 423 words]
At first he didn't succeed, but trying again led to trouble for a Riverside medical marijuana dispensary operator who police say got a city business license using fake information after his first, more honest attempt was denied. On Tuesday, Riverside police officers in SWAT gear came to Discount Patient Care at 6343 Magnolia Ave. and arrested Jimmie Sutterfield, 29, of Jurupa Valley, and booked him into Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of filing false documents in a public office, perjury and burglary, all felony charges. [continues 551 words]
Riverside City Attorney Greg Priamos now has another weapon in his fight against medical marijuana dispensaries: the power to subpoena. The City Council last week voted to let the city attorney's office use legislative subpoenas when people connected with dispensaries won't cooperate. Medical marijuana proponents say state law gives dispensaries the right to operate within certain guidelines. However, Riverside officials maintain the city zoning code bans medical marijuana facilities citywide. Priamos said he has used legislative subpoenas before, when the city was seeking to close group homes for parolees that did not have permits. He already has filed 15 lawsuits against marijuana dispensaries, some of which have closed. [continues 221 words]
Some residents in the Magnolia Center area of Riverside appear to have blocked the opening of a medical marijuana dispensary, ending a drama that unfolded over several months. It began with a dead lawn. Riverside resident Craig Celse owns a gabled Victorian home at the corner of Brockton and Merrill avenues that he rents for residential use. After city code enforcement officers cited him for dead grass, Celse put in shrubs, rosebushes and irrigation, he said in an interview. During a follow-up inspection, a code enforcement official noticed a car partly outside the paved parking area and told Celse he needed to make the driveway bigger. [continues 579 words]
An attorney for four medical marijuana dispensaries in Riverside has filed several lawsuits to pre-empt any city attempts to close the facilities. It's similar to the strategy Riverside City Attorney Greg Priamos has been using against dispensaries for more than a year. He's been filing requests for injunctions to ask judges to shutter dispensaries, on the grounds that city zoning bans them. James DeAguilera, a former Loma Linda planning director and attorney who represents more than a dozen Inland dispensaries, said last week that he requested injunctions to block Riverside from enforcing the zoning code against his clients. [continues 343 words]
A Riverside medical marijuana collective will be open to serve customers today, after an appeals court on Monday ruled the facility can operate while the city's lawsuit to close it proceeds. A lower court judge had granted an injunction to close the Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center but stayed the order so the facility's attorney could appeal. The state Fourth District Court of Appeal continued the stay while it considers the case. "Everybody's excited that we can continue to facilitate safe access" for medical marijuana patients as allowed by state law, said William Sump, the health and wellness center's general manager. [continues 225 words]
Riverside's legal efforts to close medical marijuana dispensaries have led to several operations closing in recent months, City Attorney Greg Priamos said. But other dispensaries remain open, and the operators of one facility said they'll keep trying to provide medicine to patients who need it. The city is due in court today for a hearing on whether the Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center can remain open or must close immediately. Last month, Riverside County Superior Court Judge John Molloy ruled that the city can use zoning to ban pot dispensaries. He delayed enacting an injunction that would shutter the center, so its operators could file an appeal. [continues 763 words]
Riverside medical marijuana clinic operator Lanny Swerdlow continues to maintain that the city made a mistake when it sought a court injunction against him in May. Not only did the city's filing name a business entity that doesn't exist, but the city's use of the zoning code to ban all medical marijuana facilities is unlawful, Swerdlow said Tuesday. His attorney, Richard Ackerman, made similar arguments in a response to the city's suit that was filed last week. [continues 275 words]
As Riverside tries to shut one medical marijuana dispensary within city limits, another is seeking to open with the city's approval. But city officials said they don't intend to allow the Greenhouse Care Group, a collective of about 25 Riverside patients, to run a dispensary on the east side. The group has taken a unique tack. The city has said its zoning code forbids any marijuana dispensaries, so Greenhouse Care Group applied to change the code, said Katherine Clifton, a San Diego attorney representing the not-for-profit group. [continues 335 words]
Riverside medical marijuana clinic manager Lanny Swerdlow says he just wants to throw a private, alcohol-free New Year's Eve celebration for patients. But to one Inland anti-drug group, Swerdlow's private party is a thinly disguised illegal drug bash, and the group has pressed that assertion by filing a complaint with the state attorney general. The party, which is only for medical marijuana patients, will be held tonight at the THCF Medical Clinic and Patient Center, where patients can seek a doctor's recommendation for marijuana but not obtain the drug. [continues 324 words]
Three weeks after opening, the sole medical marijuana source in the city of Riverside has no shortage of customers. The Inland Empire Health and Wellness Center Medical Marijuana Collective, which opened Dec. 5 on North Main Street, requires a doctor's recommendation for marijuana and is open only to members. After starting with about 150 members, collective general manager William Sump said Friday, "We'll probably hit 500 today." Organizers describe the collective as a farmer's market in which vendors who grow the drug can sell it to other patients. The collective takes a small cut of the money to cover expenses. [continues 415 words]
