GARDEN GROVE – The City Council’s decision to require medical marijuana dispensaries to register has made Garden Grove only the second Orange County city after Laguna Woods to pass regulations as opposed to bans, moratoriums or going after collectives.
Under the city’s new ordinance, medical marijuana dispensaries must register with the city or they will not be able to operate. The council voted 5-0 Tuesday in favor of the ordinance, which city officials say will not only help regulate the number of pot dispensaries in the city but also ensure they are located in commercial zones, not in residential or school zones.
A majority of Orange County cities have a ban prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries or a moratorium on new ones opening their doors. Cities such as Anaheim, Lake Forest and Dana Point are embroiled in legal battles with collectives and advocates who are operating dispensaries in their cities.
Although the Garden Grove council enacted a medical marijuana ban in 2008, city officials now say they don’t want to go that route because it opens them up to costly and unnecessary litigation.
The city spent about $219,000 during a four-year court battle over 8 grams of marijuana confiscated from Felix Kha. The court ruled in Kha’s favor and ordered Garden Grove police to return the marijuana, which Kha claimed was for medical purposes. The case culminated in June 2009 after the city paid $139,000 in attorney’s fees to medical marijuana advocates as part of a settlement agreement.
In Lake Forest, the city has obtained injunctions against 12 dispensaries that remain open — out of an original 20. A judge has upheld the city’s contention that the dispensaries violate the city’s zoning code.
In April the city was granted temporary restraining orders to close seven medical marijuana dispensaries operating illegally within the city and located within 600 feet of a Montessori school. In December, the city filed lawsuits against two dispensaries that had opened a few weeks before. Lawsuits were also filed against owners of the property where the dispensaries were located. Those four lawsuits followed 11 filed last year.
The city of Anaheim has an ongoing case against The Qualified Patients Association, a medical marijuana dispensary that challenged Anaheim’s ban. But in August, a state appellate court sent the case back to the lower court for a new trial. The issue of whether Anaheim can ban these dispensaries still remains unsettled.
Brea has spent about $325,000 in legal fees in an effort to shutter three medical marijuana clinics in that city.
Dana Point has spent more than $400,000 on legal costs connected to its lawsuits against three pot shops, which have been closed by judge’s orders. Unlike other cities, Dana Point also won about $7 million from the collectives and $138,000 in attorney’s fees from one of them so far.
Dana Point was able to get monetary judgments because it argued that the dispensaries were operating illegally by selling marijuana for non-medical purposes. Other cities that have sued have relied on zoning violations, which could bring court-ordered closures, but no cash. Dana Point has yet to collect the money and two of the dispensaries have filed for appeals.
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