The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Monday that cities and local municipalities may ban medical marijuana dispensaries within their territory.  The Court stated that nothing in the current medical marijuana law restricts the rights of these local governments and cities throughout the state to declare medical marijuana dispensaries a nuisance due to the increased dangers of crime, congestion, blight and drug abuse in the community.

The problem was that under Proposition 215, the statewide proposition that allowed people to use medical marijuana as long as they had a recommendation from a doctor, there was never any mention of dispensaries, shops, stores or anywhere a patient could purchase their marijuana.  What Proposition 215 stated was that people and their primary caregivers can grow or possess marijuana with a physician’s recommendation.  The law made no mention about the availability of dispensaries or collectives.  The Court cleared the way for cities to decide how much, if any, regulation or limitation of dispensaries they choose.  For example, a city may limit dispensaries in a particular area within the city while placing no limits on dispensaries in another area.

Cities and dispensary owners have been in a years-long battle regarding what cities can and cannot due to limit the operation of medical marijuana dispensaries within their borders.  Further confusion ensued when lower courts all over the state issued rulings that conflicted rulings in other jurisdictions.  One only needs to look at the Los Angeles City Council who, at first, embraced dispensaries, then tried to regulate them, and then tried to ban them.

Drug possession, sales, cultivation and transportation are serious felony offenses in Los Angeles County.  On the flip side, increasingly liberal drug laws combined with overcrowding in state prisons and local jails make the resolution of these cases by attorney Ross Erlich more advantageous to you, the client.  Additionally, if you have a physician’s recommendation to possess or cultivate marijuana, that may also benefit your case.

If you have been charged with a drug offense such as simple possession, possession for sales, transportation of a controlled substance or cultivation, contact attorney Ross Erlich before you say something to law enforcement that you may regret down the line.  Attempting to “talk your way out of it” usually does not work and, consequently, usually results in statements that are used against you.  Attorney Ross Erlich handles drug offenses in the Airport Court, CCB (Criminal Courts Building), Burbank Court and the Pasadena Court.