MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY FIGHTS VALLEJO RESTRAINING ORDER

A Vallejo medical marijuana dispensary will have at least a few more
days to operate, a judge decided Friday.

The city of Vallejo is seeking to shut down Stan the Man's Collective
on Warren Avenue at least temporarily as it pursues the dispensary's
permanent closure. On Friday, Solano County Superior Court Judge
Ramona Garrett, however, granted Stan the Man more time to respond to
the city's restraining order request.

When Judge Garrett asked if time were of the essence to shut down the
collective, Deputy City Attorney Alan Cohen said the city had moved
as quickly as possible and called the operation's delay request a
"stalling tactic."

Targeting Stan the Man is just the beginning, city officials say. The
city plans to try to halt "the proliferation of unlicensed marijuana
dispensaries" throughout Vallejo, according to a city press release
issued Thursday.

The lawsuit comes after meetings with dispensary owners and lawyers,
according to the city.

While Stan the Man officials acquired a business license in August,
Deputy City Attorney Alan Cohen contended in court papers that the
license was not for medical marijuana sales, but only for "organic
natural herbs and vitamins."

Club founder Ken Estes, who founded four sister medical marijuana
dispensaries in the Bay Area, said the city denied him a medical
marijuana business license application so he asked for the alternate
license application.

Estes, a medical marijuana user since a spinal cord injury 34 years
ago, said he was frustrated that he was "forced to go in the back
door" to operate in Vallejo.

Last year, Estes submitted an application to amend the city's zoning
codes to permit medical marijuana business uses, at a $14,000 cost.
That application is pending, city officials said.

The restraining order hearing will be 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in
Vallejo's Solano County Superior Court, Room 105.