What is it lately with all the bad news coming out of Lake Forest and Costa Mesa when it comes to medical marijuana? Both cities have been the location of several recent, high-profile raids targeting pot dispensaries. In Lake Forest, two clubs were busted, with one owner already on his way to prison and the other, Mark Moen, subject of the Weekly's current cover story, facing 40 years upstate if convicted. And then there's the lawsuit by Lake Forest aimed at prohibiting any of the cannabis collectives that haven't already been shut down from doing business there. (That suit is still pending, but only 11 of the original 35 dispensaries originally named in the suit are still operating).
The latest bummer?
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Yesterday at the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse–that name is always
a giveaway that something bad is about to happen–federal judge Andrew
Guilford ruled that four disabled residents of Lake Forest and Costa
Mesa do not have the right under the Americans with Disabilities Act to
smoke marijuana, according to this story in the OC Register. “Marijuana
is a Schedule 1 controlled substance under the Controlled Substances
Act, and under that Act, it current has no medical purpose,” Guilford
argued. The lawsuit had been filed April 2 by Marla James, Wayne
Washington, James Armatrout and Charles Daniel.
In fairness,
Guilford has a point: marijuana is still illegal, so a lawsuit citing
federal law in an effort to allow people to smoke pot that is legal
under state law is a bit of a reach, although peyote, which is also
banned under federal law, is legal to ingest for certain Native
Americans. More hopeful, perhaps, is a lawsuit filed on April 19 by two
Costa Mesa dispensaries, Herban Elements, Inc. and MedMar Patient Care
Collective, which argues that the city's ordinance prohibiting cannabis
club violates California law. The Register had that story
yesterday too, quoting city officials pretty much promising to continue
to harass medical marijuana providers until ordered not to do so.
One
thing is certain, Orange County is certainly living up to its
reputation as a bastion of hypocritical phony conservative politicians
who love to talk about limited government but spend our vital tax
resources going after people who are trying to do nothing more than
carry out the clearly-expressed (Prop. 215 anybody?) will of the
people. Who knows, given this November's ballot initiative
that supporters hope will vastly expand marijuana rights in
California–even allowing anyone 21 and older to possess up to an ounce
of pot without any doctor's note–the authorities are just desperate.
Stay tuned…
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).