ANAHEIM WINS MARIJUANA CHALLENGE

A judge rules that the city can enforce its ban on medical-marijuana
dispensaries for now.

Anaheim officers are free to enforce a ban on medical-marijuana
dispensaries for now, under a court ruling Friday.

Judge David Thompson of Orange County Superior Court denied a request
by a medical-marijuana group to block Anaheim's law forbidding
dispensaries until a trial can be held. The judge's ruling, issued
late Friday, also stated the group was unlikely to succeed in a trial.

The lawsuit by Qualified Patients Association is believed to be the
first such legal challenge in Orange County of laws against
medical-marijuana outlets. About 15 Orange County cities have banned
or are contemplating outlawing dispensaries. Other cities are
closely watching the case as a possible precedent.

Tony Curiale, the association's attorney, said he was disappointed in
the ruling. He was unsure what the association, which runs a
dispensary from an Anaheim storefront on a major thoroughfare, plans
to do in the meantime.

"We still have a trial, but it doesn't help us between now and then,"
Curiale said.

"I'm glad the court agreed with me, but I assume this isn't the end,"
said Moses Johnson, deputy city attorney. "It's just the first stage."

Voters approved a state proposition in 1996 to allow marijuana use
for medical reasons, but federal law outlaws the drug. The state law
says patients can use marijuana if they get permission from their
doctors.

Over the summer, the Anaheim City Council approved an ordinance to
outlaw dispensaries that issue marijuana to patients. Police knew
about another dispensary, but were unaware of the association that
began about five months ago.

Thompson's ruling came after an hourlong hearing Friday morning at
the Santa Ana courthouse in which attorneys debated whether federal
law should trump state or city laws on medical-marijuana use.

Curiale said patients could be harmed and at risk of arrest if the
law stays in place.

"What the city is doing makes criminal what the state makes
non-criminal," Curiale said.

But Johnson said the city should be allowed to create its own rules
about dispensaries, which state law fails to cover.

"What the state effectively has done is make drug dealers legal,"
Johnson said.

Johnson said the city justified the ban because of problems at
another dispensary, where an armed robbery and illegal drug use
occurred. An undercover officer went to the dispensary and got a name
of a doctor to give him a prescription. The officer told the doctor
that he had no medical problems, but the doctor gave him a note for
$200 anyway.

"It's been fraudulently abused by people who want to get high,"
Johnson said.

Curiale said all dispensaries shouldn't be shut down because of
problems at one. He said laws, including Anaheim's, act as a "boa
constrictor on the body of patients of this state."

The ruling says a trial could be held in about five months.