MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY BACK IN BUSINESS IN CATHEDRAL CITY

Cathedral City Still Trying To Revoke License

Essential Herbs and Oils re-opened its doors for business Thursday,
but how long the medical marijuana dispensary on East Palm Canyon
Drive will remain open is anybody's guess.

Although Cathedral City officials were unsuccessful in their attempts
to get a federal injunction against the dispensary earlier this week,
they are continuing their efforts to revoke the shop's business license.

The dispensary has also received a notice of eviction.

Efforts to contact the dispensary's landlord were unsuccessful
Thursday, but Anthony Curiale, attorney for the dispensary, confirmed
that the business had received an eviction notice and would oppose it.

The shop also will oppose the city's efforts to revoke its license,
Curiale said. A date for a hearing on the matter has yet to be set.

In the midst of this slippery legal landscape, Virginia and Adam
Hurn, the Cathedral City couple behind Essential Herbs, are calmly
determined to stay open. They have between 400 and 600 patients, Adam
Hurn said, and they want to work with the city, not fight it.

"We plan on donating to the police department and the fire
department," said Adam Hurn, sitting in the dispensary's freshly
painted waiting room on Thursday. "We've asked for a meeting with the
City Council and their attorney."

Mayor Kathy DeRosa declined to comment on the city's actions against
the dispensary.

Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City are the last two cities in the
Coachella Valley that have not passed a moratorium or ban on
dispensaries. The Indio City Council approved a ban on Wednesday.

Francis Podrebarac, a Cathedral City resident and patient at the
dispensary, said he wants the city to back off.

"The issue is about disability," said Podrebarac, himself a doctor
who uses marijuana to relieve pain from cancer and AIDS-related conditions.

"I'm unable to take opiate medications because of side effects," he
said. "I think it's reasonable to ask for safe medicine that's grown
in California, that's not hauled across border from Mexico."

Under California law, which allows medical use of marijuana for
patients with a doctor's letter of recommendation, Podrebac's actions
are legal.

But use or sale of the drug is illegal under U.S. law, which was the
basis of Cathedral City's failed request for a federal injunction.

Judge Stephen G. Larson of the U.S. District Court in Riverside ruled
on Monday that the city cannot use federal law to close the business.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles has declined comment on
whether it will pursue a case against the dispensary, said Thom
Mrozek, a spokesman for the office.

The city's cost for the federal litigation has also become an issue,
with Councilman Paul Marchand, an attorney, estimating lawyers' fees
of more than $10,000.

"I'm very concerned about taxpayers' bottom line," Marchand said. "We
need to be much more careful than we have been about taking on legal
challenges because there are all kinds of consequences, intended and
unintended, that flow from this. We're spending money that for us is
very scarce."

The city attorney's fees for the case are not yet available, said
Deputy City Manager Julie Baumer. "The normal billing process for the
city attorney is monthly," she said. "When we get the bills in for
March, then we'll release them."

Baumer said no complaints about the business have been voiced to the
city. Other small businesses in the same complex as the dispensary
are mostly neutral on the issue.

Charles Elmais, owner of Best Dental Laboratories located above
Essential Herbs, said he was not even aware of it until a few people
wandered into his office looking for the dispensary.

Sasha Diaz, a tax preparer at Desert Mortgage, said the dispensary
has caused no problems, but she would still like it to close.

"I don't like it," Diaz said. "It brings bad people around."

But the Hurns said they want Essential Herbs to help promote business
in the area. The shop will pay sales tax, Adam Hurn said, and draw
consumers to the area.

"If (people) come to my shop, they'll say, 'Let's grab a pizza; let's
grab a soda pop,'" he said. "If everyone who came here spent $5 on
gas in Cathedral City, we'd come up real good."