Among the unintended consequences of Prop. 19, employees will be able to show up to work under the influence of marijuana while being within their legal rights.

Victor Smith Restua of Mission Viejo was arrested on suspicion of robbery and carjacking on Tuesday night after investigators connected him to an incident reported to Lake Forest deputies on Sunday.

The directive came after the board rejected another bid to impose a 45-day moratorium on permits for medical marijuana collectives or dispensaries in the county. Supervisors Shawn Nelson and John Moorlach voted against the moratorium, leaving it short of the four votes it needed.

While they all followed the law and required a doctor's approval, Leber said the dispensaries he visited were run by young people, sometimes in seedy neighborhoods. After watching a "terrified" woman in her 70s try to buy marijuana from one, he decided it was time to give seniors an alternative.

Mission Viejo paid for half the cost of the plans, but another $42,000 was agreed-to by the Laguna Niguel council Tuesday night. The extra costs will pay for both the drafting of a legal description necessary for an overhead sign, as well as a more extensive traffic management plan during the project.

A trial court judge threw out Malinda Traudt's suit in July, but the judgment was formally entered last week, paving the way for an appeal to the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana, her attorney Jeff Schwartz said on Thursday.

After a work accident in 1994, Bendula, of Tracy, is now one of about 400,000 Californians who have medical marijuana cards. For Bendula, he smokes between 3 and 5 grams of pot a day to help alleviate his pain.

It doesn't, however, change the difficulty of finding a job where drug tests and screenings are required.

As one Obama administration official told the Los Angeles Times in March:

"If you are operating a medical marijuana clinic that is actually a front, we'll come after you. But if you are operating within the law, we are not going to prioritize our resources to go after them."

A Superior Court Judge on Tuesday dismissed Malinda Traudt's suit on grounds that there is no state constitutional right to obtain medical pot and the 1996 voter-approved initiative that permitted use of the drug for medical reasons doesn't pre-empt Dana Point's zoning laws.

The city, which has been hellbent on shutting down such business, sees the ruling differently, of course.

"I cannot conceive that the Obama administration, facing an election year, would thumb its nose at the voters of the state of California. It just is not going to happen," Gray said in an interview after a recent Sacramento debate on the ballot initiative.

Attorneys for the city were prepared to seek contempt-of-court orders against eight medical marijuana dispensaries yesterday but, by day's end, four were closed, said Jeffrey Dunn, an attorney representing the city.

New Amsterdam Cooperative and Lake Forest Patients Collective Association were closed by noon when city personnel checked the locations, city officials said. Eight others remain open.

Citing court rulings that there is no constitutional right to obtain medical marijuana and state laws do not preempt a city's ability to regulate or ban pot dispensaries, Judge Nomoto Schumann gave Malinda Traudt until Monday to file the amended document, Traudt's attorney said.

Judge David Chaffee ruled that "all defendants and their officers, agents, employees, representatives and all persons acting in concert or participating with them are prohibited and restrained from engaging in committing, providing the location or performing by any means activity related to the distribution of marijuana."

The unfettered delivery of marijuana through hundreds of these services highlights how quickly California's fabled pot industry is moving from the shadows and into uncharted legal territory. These new couriers include enterprising farmers, business entrepreneurs and even a former Los Angeles pot dealer methodically switching her former clients to legal patients.

Traudt, 29, who was born with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and blindness, has sued Dana Point to keep the city from closing a medical marijuana dispensary that her attorney and family say has become her lifeline.

Irvine has become the latest Orange County city drawn into a legal battle with medical marijuana advocates, with The Power of Trinity Inc. this month challenging the city's denial of their proposed dispensary.

Yet to be determined is whether it is a fatal blow or merely a flesh wound.

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/05/15/1934431/ban-on-oc-pot-clinics-is-appealed.html?storylink=mirelated#ixzz0oxq5nNcX

Matthew Pappas, a Mission Viejo attorney representing the users, said he believes the case has a chance of succeeding because of his interpretation of the equal protection clause in the 5th Amendment based on a 2009 congressional decision to lift a ban on medical marijuana in Washington, D.C.

Matthew Pappas, a Mission Viejo attorney representing the users, said he believes the case has a chance of succeeding because of his interpretation of the equal protection clause in the 5th Amendment based on a 2009 congressional decision to lift a ban on medical marijuana in Washington, D.C.

Judge David Chaffee's ruling is in response to lawsuits filed by Lake Forest seeking a preliminary injunction to stop dispensaries from operating. The city argued the dispensaries violate zoning laws

Orange County Superior Court Judge David Chaffee granted a preliminary injunction that will force the pot clinics to close. However, it wasn't immediately known when that may occur.

Judge David Chaffee listened to three attorneys representing three collectives on Raymond Way argue their points on why the collectives – Evergreen Holistic, Lake Forest Patient Collective and the Independent Collective of Orange County – should remain open.

Orange County prosecutors say they sold pot to people who didn't help grow it—thus violating a state law permitting marijuana collectives.

The district attorney's office says 26-year-old Steven Wick, who co-owned the Health Collective, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Newport Beach to selling and possessing pot for sale. He's expected to plead guilty to marijuana charges in another marijuana case next week and will get a combined sentence of four years in prison.

"The last thing California needs is hundreds of thousands of more people getting high," Republican Party chairman Ron Nehring said Wednesday, "and the costs to society that would come from widely expanded drug use."

Read more: http://www.oclnn.com/orange-county/2010-03-19/courts-crime/costa-mesa-pot-dispensaries-told-to-cease-and-desist#ixzz0ieFZlo3w

Mayor Allan Mansoor met medical marijuana advocates Tuesday afternoon to hear their concerns and discuss possible solutions.

Cannabis State opened Friday in Sunset Beach and on Sunday will be holding its first class: an introduction to medical marijuana. The school's founders hope local seniors will be among their first students.

Mark Gregory Moen, 50, of Westminster, the owner-operator of 215 Agenda, a marijuana dispensary on Raymond Way, was in Superior Court for an arraignment hearing.

He has an orange permit on the lobby wall that says he's licensed by the State of California to sell medical marijuana. What he doesn't have – what he can't get – is a permit from the city.

Four people sought treatment Friday night in Huntington Beach after eating brownies apparently purchased at a medical marijuana dispensary, authorities said.

The city sent letters to Santa Ana landlords operating cannabis dispensaries citing city code violations for lack of a business license.

“Patients Choice Collective Association (PCCA) offers a safe place to access medical cannabis,” said Matthew DeGroat, president of PCCA. “We will only accept patients with a doctor recommendation.”

"We're doing what we can do to shut them down if they are operating illegally," said Costa Mesa Police Chief Christopher Shawkey.

Bruce Benedict, 45, sued the Seal Beach police for $1 million in August 2008 alleging violations of civil and safety codes, false imprisonment, battery and trespass.

The collective, Salubrius RX, registered as a new business with the city on Jan. 14. It is located at 22607 La Palma Ave., Suite 405.

The suspects were arrested Thursday at the West Coast Wellness. They include three men booked on suspicion of illegally selling marijuana and an 18-year-old woman arrested for drug possession.

Gregory Barnett, 55, alleges in his claim against the city that police destroyed the marijuana, which was ordered to be returned by the court. An attached appraisal with the claim states that the type of cannabis, "Kush," would cost $8,000 to $8,250 per pound.

It's easy to get a scrip for pot. Dispensaries offer referrals to pot-friendly physicians who will write a prescription for pot under dubious diagnoses for symptoms ranging from vaguely painful arthritis to phantom cancer – for a cash fee.

Investigators searched for and seized receipts, buyer sheets, member lists, check stubs and other financial documents from 215 Agenda and The Health Collective looking for evidence that the two locations were profit-making businesses and not nonprofit collectives as required under California guidelines.

Hawkins just came from one of five medical marijuana dispensaries that surround King's on the second-floor of a strip mall at Raymond Way and El Toro Road, and he's carrying a small paper bag containing cannabis called "OG Kush" – the type that he says stops his unbearable head aches and stimulates his appetite but doesn't make him feel high.

Just like anything else, there is a method to the madness of receiving a medical marijuana card and where to buy your weed, said Joffran Gonzales, a volunteer in a collective in the Los Angeles area.

If one of these initiatives passes, California would become the first state to legalize marijuana and impose a tax on it, a move proponents say could help get the state out of an unprecedented budget crisis.

Among a list of requests the city is seeking from dispensaries is identifications and contact information for clients of the groups.

The dispensaries, among other objections to the subpoenas, say the city did not follow proper procedure to issue a subpoena.

The answer may hinge on a lawsuit being heard today before California's 4th District Court of Appeal. A group of medical marijuana patients – called the Qualified Patients Association – are appealing an Orange County Superior Court judge's dismissal of their lawsuit that challenged an Anaheim ordinance that forbids such outlets and makes operators subject to criminal prosecution.

A group of patients is appealing a judge's dismissal of their lawsuit, which challenged a July 2007 Anaheim ordinance outlawing dispensaries and subjecting operators to criminal prosecution.

The 4th District Court of Appeal heard arguments in the case of Qualified Patients Association – a group of such patients – vs. the City of Anaheim, which approved an ordinance in July 2007 that forbids the outlets and makes operators subject to criminal prosecution. The patients group wants the appeals court to resurrect their lawsuit, which was dismissed by a lower court judge.

The expense derives from the city's refusal, even when ordered by a court, to return marijuana to one Felix Kha, who was a qualified medical marijuana user under state law when he was pulled over on a routine traffic stop in 2005. The ensuing citation for marijuana possession was dismissed when Mr. Kha produced documentation of a physician's recommendation.

At least 10 marijuana collectives are doing business in Lake Forest, setting up in office spaces that often go unnoticed by the city.

Though Lake Forest adopted an ordinance prohibiting any business that does not adhere to both state and federal laws, many of the dispensaries have taken advantage of the city's laissez-faire policy where businesses are not required to register with the city.

The break-ins were sometime around 5 a.m., said Lt. Mike Jansen of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

The West County Patient Collective Association – which boasts 500 members — would like to keep what they call the most beautiful marijuana dispensary in California. But the possibility of Sunset Beach being annexed into a neighboring city could threaten the dispensary's future.

And should California – where cannabis is legal for medical use and where dispensaries pay $100 million in taxes annually – legalize marijuana for everyone's use?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's looking for tax money under every rock and tree trunk, says "I think it's time for debate. I think all of those ideas of creating extra revenues – I'm always for an open debate."

Weedmaps is a founder of The Dispensary Defense Group, headed by Richard Cowan, former Director of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Council members voted Monday night in favor of a new ordinance that will ensure medical marijuana dispensaries are kept out.

The City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday night to ban the pot stores. The ordinance takes effect in 30 days.

Councilman Mark Rosen cast the lone dissenting vote, saying the ban is "mired in mid-20th-century thinking."

Garden Grove, Calif., has one dispensary, which opened seven months ago. One of the owners of Unit-D said that the dispensary plans to remain open as long as it can, The Orange County Register reported.

Bruce Benedict filed the lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court last month, saying he is allowed by California law to grow and distribute pot.

Thursday's court decision clears the way for Nature's Wellness Collective to continue operating while the dispensary pursues its lawsuit.

Officials with the Orange County chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML) said they were refused a booth after being told by an organizer that the city and event sponsors did not support the group's message. The group advocates the repeal of marijuana prohibition and the use of medical marijuana.

The Qualified Patients Association, the medical-marijuana advocacy group that filed the lawsuit, plans to appeal Wednesday's Orange County Superior Court ruling, said Tony Curiale, the association's attorney.

If the City Council does indeed vote to regulate the dispensaries, Fullerton would apparently become the only Orange County muncipality with such regulations.

Statewide police and prosecutors' organizations and 16 city governments from around California joined officials of the Orange County community of Garden Grove in arguing that the court-ordered return of a patient's pot supply would condone drug use, interfere with federal enforcement and even expose police to possible federal prosecution for distributing marijuana or aiding in its use.