ANAHEIM RULING COULD BE USEFUL IN UPLAND MEDICAL MARIJUANA CASE

UPLAND - Three Upland medical marijuana cooperatives will remain
closed, despite a published opinion filed Wednesday in a state
appellate court.

The co-ops appeared in court Friday to request a lifting of a
preliminary injunction granted by a judge at the West Valley Superior
Court in Rancho Cucamonga.

The judge ruled to uphold the injunction and keep the shops closed
until the trial.

Upland is attempting to permanently close at least three medical
marijuana cooperatives in the city. The city passed a zoning ordinance
a few years ago that prohibits medical marijuana cooperatives from
operating within city limits.

Aaron Sandusky, president of one of the shops, G3 Holistic, said he
thinks the judge's decision violates patients' rights to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.

"I'm not saying medical marijuana will cure disease, but it's a means
of treatment from harmful side effects of prescription drugs or
life-saving treatments that patients need," Sandusky said. "And
denying access affects their life and pursuit of happiness."

The published opinion addresses the case of Qualified Patients
Association, an Anaheim-based medical marijuana cooperative, versus
the city of Anaheim. Qualified Patients sued the city in 2007, when
Anaheim attempted to implement an ordinance banning all medical
marijuana dispensaries.

The opinion was expected to address whether cities have the right to
ban medical marijuana Advertisement cooperatives, but the judges
ordered that component of the case to go back to trial court for more
hearings.

They did, however, determine that the state's Compassionate Use Act,
which decriminalized medical marijuana, applies over federal law when
cities attempt to ban dispensaries based on federal law.

"The opinion there was certainly not bad news," said Lanny Swerdlow,
president of the Inland Empire chapter of the Marijuana
Anti-Prohibition Project. "There was definitely good news, just not as
much good news as we would have liked."

It will be some time before the dispute between medical marijuana
cooperatives and cities over the right to ban dispensaries through
ordinances will be resolved, he said.

A footnote in the opinion was expected to prove useful for the shops,
according to the cooperatives' attorney Roger Jon Diamond.

The footnote ruled against an argument used by attorneys for the city
of Anaheim in a case against a medical marijuana cooperative in the
city. The city of Upland relied on the same cases to argue for a
preliminary injunction on the co-ops that was granted by a judge at
the West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga.

The injunction was granted on the basis of the two cases and the three
shops were forced to close on Tuesday.

"Footnote 4 discredits those two cases and distinguishes them just as
I did to Judge Plotkin," Diamond said. "I was unable to persuade Judge
Plotkin that these two cases did not apply and now Footnote 4 agrees
with me."

The cases referred to were the city of Claremont vs. Kruse and the
city of Corona vs. Naulls, which did not involve an ordinance like
Anaheim's, according to the opinion.

Bill and Sherrie Heim operate Old World Solutions, one of the three
medical marijuana co-ops shut down Tuesday.

"We really want to take this from an illicit business to a licit
business," said Bill Heim. "I don't think staying open and defying the
court, even though we don't agree with the court, is going to get us
there."