Suit filed against Central Wellness Collective on El Cajon Blvd Sept 26

By Manny Lopez | SDUN Reporter

The San Diego City Attorney’s Office has restarted its efforts to force medical marijuana dispensaries operating within the city limits to close. In response to a directive from Interim Mayor Todd Gloria, the Code Enforcement Unit filed its first such lawsuit this year against North Park’s Central Wellness Collective on Sept. 26, claiming the dispensary is operating illegally under the City’s zoning laws. The Collective is located at 2621 El Cajon Blvd.

The complaint also holds property owner Malcolm Family Properties, LLC and its managers liable for allowing a dispensary to operate on the property illegally. In a press release dated Sept. 27, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said the action was taken following complaints by citizens and business owners, and documented altercations in the parking lot of neighboring restaurant Lil B’s Urban Eatery, adjacent to the Central Wellness Collective.

The move marks a departure from former Mayor Bob Filner’s policy of not targeting dispensaries for enforcement until the City Council passes an ordinance regulating medical marijuana collectives. Filner resigned Aug. 30.

“We are a city of laws and we should follow laws that are on the books and if we don’t like the laws that we have, we should repeal them and replace them with something else,” Gloria said at the September meeting of the San Diego Democrats for Equality, a LGBT political group that invited Gloria to speak before holding a mayoral candidate forum.

“We have gone through the process of closing almost 200 dispensaries in the city of San Diego. We have roughly 15 or so that I understand are operating today. We are in a precarious position legally having closed down 200, but allowing 15 to operate,” he said.

Gloria said a previous ordinance passed by the Council in 2011 was repealed by medical marijuana advocates. He said city staff has been asked to make this a top priority and he is committed to carrying an ordinance for the Council’s consideration by January that will allow a limited number of dispensaries to legally operate in city limits.

As stated in the City Attorney’s complaint filed Sept. 26 in San Diego County’s Superior Court, an inspection of the property occurred approximately June 11. At the time, a Land Development Investigator and Building Inspector “observed marijuana displayed in glass jars and in glass cabinets in the dispensary,” the complaint said.

On approximately July 19, San Diego’s Code Enforcement Services Unit served the defendants with a notice of violations and ordered them to “immediately ceases operating or maintaining” the dispensary, the complaint said. When property owners did not comply, the case was referred to the City Attorney’s office.

According to the City Attorney’s office, approximately 91 complaints have been filed by the City against dispensary operators and property owners leasing to dispensaries since 2011. Of the 91 complaints filed, all dispensaries closed either through court order or settlement agreements.

To date 133 settlement agreements have been filed with six default judgments. Six of the original cases filed have not settled and have trial or settlement conference dates in the future. Those dispensaries have been closed since 2011 and 2012. There are four cases that are currently being investigated where dispensaries are open that have not been filed.

In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215 and adopted the Compassionate Use Act, which removed state-level criminal penalties for the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess a recommendation or approval by a physician. The Act also granted legal protections to medicinal marijuana dispensaries.

“It’s impossible to comply with zoning since the city doesn’t have regulations allowing collectives to be zoned or not to be zoned in a specific area,” said Eugene Davidovich, president of the San Diego Chapter of Americans for Safe Access, a cannabis advocacy group.

“There’s no ban, there’s no prohibition that says collectives, cooperatives or dispensaries are illegal. But the interpretation of the City Attorney is that because they’re not explicitly regulated under the law that they are by default illegal,” he said.

Davidovich said what is important is safe access for patients in San Diego and in order to provide that as the mandate and state law requires, San Diego needs regulations at the city level. He also said the federal government has recently shifted its position by de-prioritizing medical marijuana as stated in the four-page Cole memo, delivered Aug. 29 from Deputy Attorney General James Cole, following congressional hearings.

“It was a big change that we’ve never seen before,” Davidovich said. “It’s upon the cities to regulate now that there is a green light from the federal government to do it. That means the federal government is basically calling upon the city of San Diego to enact strict regulations.”