Court Ruling Bolsters RSM Efforts to Ban Marijuana Dispensaries

A state Supreme Court ruling Monday upholding the city of Riverside's ban on storefront medical marijuana dispensaries will likely buttress similar ordinances, prompting Rancho Santa Margarita to explore options for keeping the city free of dispensaries.

Rancho Santa Margarita has had a moratorium on marijuana dispensaries since Sept. 2011, hoping to take its queue from pending litigation in the courts.

“Once we consult with our lawyers and find that now the law is settled, and that we’re in a position to make a formal ordinance, I think it’s very likely this matter will be brought before the city council for discussion, deliberation and action,” said Tony Beall, the mayor of Rancho Santa Margarita. “My suspicion is dispensaries will be turned away from RSM.

“Everyone is sympathetic to those who have a medical need, but the marijuana dispensaries in this entire system have been subjected to tremendous abuse that have negative impacts on local communities.”

Nearby Orange County cities have been at the forefront of the legal battle to ban them. Currently Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach and Dana Point have enacted bans on dispensaries. In all, about 200 jurisdictions throughout California have such bans on their books.

Lake Forest Mayor Scott Voigts hailed the ruling, which could affect the city's efforts to keep the Evergreen Holistic Collective closed.

"We are very pleased that the California Supreme Court has upheld the city's right to regulate the use of its land," Voigts said. "Throughout this journey, we have consistently championed local public safety and the city's right to enforce its zoning laws on behalf of the people of Lake Forest. We have worked hard to rid the community of illegal marijuana stores and are gratified our efforts have been validated."

Attorney David Welch, who represents Evergreen Holistic Collective, said the state high court's ruling may not fully apply to Evergreen.

"It's different in Evergreen," Welch said, adding that unlike in the Riverside case, marijuana at the Lake Forest dispensary was being cultivated on site and no doctor was available issuing prescriptions.

Still, Welch said, the ruling on the Riverside case "will have an effect on how they rule on Evergreen."

Attorney Scott Smith, who represents Lake Forest, said he was "really pleased" with today's ruling.

"The decision was completely consistent with the Lake Forest world view, which is that there's a body of state law (on medical marijuana), but it did not seem to deny traditional land use authority. The Supreme Court landed straight there."

City officials have the right to use local ordinances to regulate or ban the medical marijuana dispensaries and state law does not preempt that right, Smith said.

Smith argued that it doesn't matter whether marijuana was being cultivated on-site in the Evergreen collective.

"It's worse," Smith said of the marijuana cultivation. "And it's irrelevant whether it's cultivated or retail sales, etc., etc. The Supreme Court has left the authority to the cities."

In February of last year, a panel of Fourth District Court of Appeal justices in Santa Ana overturned a lower court judge's injunction shutting down Evergreen in May 2010.

The appellate justices in Santa Ana ruled that city officials may use their nuisance ordinance to regulate the dispensaries and collectives but can't just declare them a nuisance, thereby banning them.

The state Supreme Court referred to a ruling from appellate justices in Santa Ana that sided with medical marijuana advocates challenging Anaheim's ordinances, Smith noted.

"They did acknowledge the local ruling in Anaheim was wrong," Smith said.

The state high court's 44-page ruling was in response to an appeal by Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center Inc., which sought to challenge zoning regulations put in place by Riverside prohibiting cannabis clubs or collectives from operating outlets where individuals with prescriptions for medical marijuana could purchase it.

The Riverside case was argued in February.

Five other cases stemming from challenges to regulations against medical marijuana dispensaries are pending before the court.

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-- City News Service contributed to this report.