NORCO MEDICAL-MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FILES COURT CHALLENGE

NORCO - Attorneys for a medical-marijuana dispensary in Norco are
demanding that the city license and permit the collective.

Collective Solutions attorney Stewart E. Richelin is challenging the
city's request that a judge shut down the dispensary for illegally
operating on Sixth Street. He filed a cross-complaint Thursday in
Riverside County Superior Court.

Richelin's filing faults the city for backdating its moratorium on
medical-marijuana dispensaries as a method of "harassing and
intimidating" the operators of the collective. Richelin's filing
also disputes the city's claim that the business is a public
nuisance. He said the city has run afoul of state law by
not allowing "safe access" to medicinal marijuana.

The city denied a business license to the collective in November on
the grounds that a medical-marijuana dispensary violated land-use
provisions for the area. The city subsequently issued a one-year
moratorium on such dispensaries.

State and federal laws differ on the legality of the use and
distribution of medical marijuana, complicating the issue for local
governments.

California voters passed Prop. 215 in 1996 to decriminalize the use
of marijuana for medicinal purposes. However, the sale and use of
marijuana is illegal under federal law.

Richelin said he would voluntarily draft an ordinance for the city
that would present rules and guidelines for medical-marijuana
dispensaries in Norco.

"The most intelligent play that we can make is to sit down at a
table and work together to provide for the safe access that hasn't
been provided for since 1996, when the people voted for the
Compassionate Use Act," he said.

The city's legal counsel, William Litvak, said the city could not
lawfully meet the demands made by the collective.

"I am sufficiently comfortable in stating that we don't believe that
the issues that they are raising are meritorious or substantive
enough to avoid the fact that they don't have proper licenses," Litvak said.