Apparently Derek Gonzalez didn't get the memo that the city of Fullerton doesn't allow medical marijuana dispensaries inside city limits. Whether or not he did, the 21-year-old owner of The Green Parrot, a medical marijuana dispensary in Fullerton, apparently didn't know it is also illegal to operate within 600 feet of an elementary school under a state law that took effect on Jan. 1, 2011. But according to a story in today's Orange County Register, Fullerton's Raymond Elementary is located just 300 feet away from his club.
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All of which explains why on July 7, Fullerton police arrested Gonzalez for operating a marijuana dispensary without a city permit or license, as well as operating within 600 feet of a school, and shut down his club. The Register says Gonzalez was providing cannabis to about 400 patients but police don't know how long he was actually in business. In any case, after Gonzalez agreed not to reopen the dispensary, police let him go the same day.
Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is Editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).