Author: John Hoeffel

The nation’s main advocacy group for medical marijuana is threatening to fight legal efforts by Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich to force three dispensaries to stop selling the drug.

The city prosecutor’s office filed the lawsuits last week to seek court injunctions to force Organica in the Venice area and two Holistic Caregivers stores in South Los Angeles to stop all over-the-counter sales. Trutanich maintains that state law authorizes collectives only to grow marijuana and recover their costs, not sell it, a practice that is widespread.

Americans for Safe Access, an organization that supports medical marijuana and frequently has assisted dispensaries in their legal battles, has tried repeatedly to persuade the city prosecutor that he is misreading the law and recent court decisions, but he has not budged.

On Tuesday, the organization’s chief counsel, Joe Elford, wrote to Trutanich and Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who shares Trutanich’s view, saying the advocacy group would join the lawsuits on the side of the dispensaries unless they were withdrawn. He accused the two prosecutors of taking preemptive action before dispensaries had time to comply with the city’s ordinance.

“The Los Angeles city attorney and district attorney’s contempt for the City Council and its recently adopted ordinance is unacceptable and must be stopped,” Elford said in a statement. “The city attorney’s legal arguments are horribly flawed and have no basis in law.”

The city attorney’s office had no immediate comment.

[Updated 1:18 p.m.: Chief Deputy City Atty. William W. Carter said he had not seen the group’s letter. “I’ve read their press release, and I am not impressed,” he said. “We obviously don’t agree with their position. We are enforcing the existing local and state laws just as we’ve been doing for a long time.”

Carter said his office will not withdraw the lawsuits, noting that it has already won a court injunction barring a dispensary from selling marijuana in a similar case and is confident in its legal position. “We don’t respond to threats,” he said.]

The City Council has passed an ordinance, but it skirted the contentious issue of whether sales were legal, saying only that dispensaries must comply with state law. The ordinance will not take effect until the council adopts fees the dispensaries must pay to operate.

— John Hoeffel

Photo: LAPD officers Reyes, Lt, and Chavez at the gate of marijuana dispensary Organica Collective, February 18, 2010. Federal agents and L.A. police officers raided a Culver City medical marijuana dispensary, Thursday. Witnesses reported seeing several officers and cars congregating about 10 a.m. around Organica Collective at 13456 Washington Blvd., said officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen confirmed the agency was serving warrants at the collective, which has been raided in the past. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times

Photograph by Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Organica Collective owner Jeff Joseph  is taken into custody by LAPD undercover officers after a raid by federal agents and Los Angeles police officers at his marijuana dispensary.

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The Los Angeles city attorney today escalated his bid to regain control over the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries, filing suit against three and sending letters to 18 to try to force them to stop selling the drug, alleging the outlets have repeatedly violated state law.

City Atty. Carmen Trutanich had pledged to take aggressive action to shut down illegal dispensaries. Hundreds of stores have opened in Los Angeles while the City Council debated an ordinance to regulate them. The council passed the law, but it still has not taken effect.

Trutanich launched his campaign with a single lawsuit against an Eagle Rock dispensary called Hemp Factory V. He recently won an injunction to force it to stop selling marijuana in a ruling that suggests he could see a similar result in the three new lawsuits. The judge in the case agreed with Trutanich that state law does not authorize dispensaries to sell the drug.

Today’s suits were filed against Organica, a dispensary that straddles Culver City and Los Angeles, and two locations of Holistic Caregivers in South Los Angeles.

Based on allegations of illegal activity that stem from undercover police buys, the city attorney’s office also sent letters to 18 landlords to warn them that the dispensaries renting their property are violating state and local drug laws and that the landlords could face a lawsuit.

The letters give the property owners 30 days to respond.

Organica, which was raided by police and federal agents Thursday, has been raided twice before. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley had cited the dispensary as one he was considering filing charges against, but no charges have been filed. The owner, Jeff Joseph, closed the store after the second raid, but recently reopened. He could not be reached for comment, and the city attorney’s office said he was the subject of an arrest warrant for sales of marijuana.

The city attorney’s office said people who were stopped near Organica admitted picking up large quantities of marijuana from the dispensary to deliver to other dispensaries.

The two Holistic Caregivers stores were among seven owned by Virgil Grant that were the target of a multi-agency investigation. The city attorney’s office said law enforcement officers made undercover buys and found large quantities of marijuana products. Grant was convicted last year of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance.

— John Hoeffel

Supporters of legalized marijuana announced today that they have gathered about 700,000 signatures for their initiative, virtually guaranteeing voters will see it on the November ballot.

They plan to turn in the petitions today to elections officials in some of the state’s major counties, including Los Angeles. Supporters need 433,971 valid signatures to qualify the measure.

The measure’s main proponent, Richard Lee, a highly successful Oakland marijuana entrepreneur, bankrolled a professional signature-gathering effort that was bolstered by volunteers from the state’s hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries.

“This is a historic first step toward ending cannabis prohibition,” Lee said. “I’ve always believed that cannabis should be taxed and regulated and that our current laws aren’t working.”

The initiative, known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act, would make it legal for anyone 21 and older to possess an ounce of marijuana and grow plants in an area no larger than 25 square feet for personal use. It would also allow cities and counties to permit marijuana to be grown and sold, and to impose taxes on marijuana production and sales.

Four marijuana legalization initiatives have been proposed, but Lee’s is the only one that appears to have the financial support to make the ballot.

Lee’s firm, one of the state’s most successful marijuana businesses, has spent more than $1 million on the measure and hired professional consultants to run the campaign. Lee owns half a dozen mostly pot-related businesses in Oakland, including Coffeeshop Blue Sky, a medical marijuana dispensary, and Oaksterdam University, which offers classes on marijuana.

Polls have shown growing support nationwide for legalization. In California, a majority favors it. A Field Poll taken last April found that 56% of voters in the state and 60% in Los Angeles County want to make pot legal and tax it. That margin, though, is not enough to assure victory.

The political climate has turned conservative in this non-presidential election year. Some prominent marijuana legalization advocates have questioned whether 2010 was the right year to test whether Californians would again break new ground on drug legalization, as they did in 1996 when they approved marijuana for medical use.

If passed, the initiative would put the state in conflict with federal law. The Obama administration last year announced it would not prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries that adhere to California’s laws, but it has adamantly opposed efforts to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

— John Hoeffel

Photo: Howard Dillon, left, unloads boxes of signatures outside the county registrar’s office in Norwalk. At right is retired Judge James P. Gray. Dillon delivered 17 boxes holding 143,105 signatures for the marijuana legalization initiative. The boxes were brought inside to be counted. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

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