It’s about that time for another round of the costly, drawn-out legal brawl over how to control medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. Two new lawsuits are stepping up to join the fight and continue to challenge the city’s latest ordinance.
Both filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in attempt to hinder the city’s ill-conceived attempts to establish a lottery to decide the winners and losers of its disastrous ordinance. The new lawsuits may launch another series of judicial hearings and thwart the city’s bid to enforce its ordinance, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Los Angeles medical marijuana lawyers at the Cannabis Law Group represent some of the 64 dispensaries that have filed lawsuits against the city. The ordinance is aimed at closing about 450 legal businesses. The group offers reasonable legal fees and urges marijuana dispensaries to join the fight by calling today for a legal consultation.
In the middle of April, some of the oldest medical marijuana collectives in Los Angeles sued the city as they tried to overturn the ordinance. The ordinance chooses the dispensaries to be entered into a lottery, a process the lawsuits mock as “a euphemism for a municipal game of ‘Russian Roulette.'”
More than 20 dispensaries that are currently suing the city are among those that the City Council let operate when, in 2007, it adopted a moratorium on new stores. The city’s first ordinance would have allowed them to stay open if they complied with restrictions on locations. A judge ruled that key aspects of the law were unacceptable. In addition, the City Council passed a second ordinance that relied on a random drawing to select 100 dispensaries that will be allowed to stay open.
Our Los Angeles marijuana defense attorneys do not believe that any city has the right to create laws against legal businesses in direct violation of the laws of California, including the Medical Marijuana Act and the Compassionate Use Act. We also do not believe that it is fair to only target marijuana dispensaries that opened their doors after November of 2007. The city’s law is grossly unfair to one set of businesses, while favoring similar businesses with reduced competition and the legal means to remain open.
Our lawyers at the Cannabis Law Group remain dedicated to protecting the rights of legally operating medical marijuana growers, distributors and their patients against the overreaching actions of cities throughout the Los Angeles area. No city should be allowed to enact restrictions, ordinances or other hindrances to business operating legally under California law.
Even after following all previous ordinances in good faith, dispensaries are being forced to place all their luck in a lottery in hopes of being chosen to remain open. After being pushed around for so long, companies are now fighting back against the city as more and more lawsuits pile up.
The Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys at the Cannabis Law Group represent medical marijuana dispensaries throughout Southern California. Call 949-375-4734 for a confidential consultation to discuss your rights.