VALLEJO'S LEADERS DELAY WORK ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY ORDINANCE

Partially successful court litigation does not seem to have slowed
medical marijuana dispensaries from calling Vallejo home, as the city
council has delayed work on an ordinance addressing the issue.

Last week, members of the Vallejo City Council briefly addressed
looking at a local ordinance, following a failed state Proposition 19
that would have legalized recreational marijuana use.

Mayor Osby Davis recommended delaying work on such an ordinance --
along with other council-set goals for the year, until after a
deadline for a bankruptcy exit strategy filing.

Councilwoman Marti Brown, who broached the issue at a council
meeting, said this week that she supported the prioritization of
bankruptcy court issues.

"I think my issue, what you saw on the dais, is we have to talk about
it transparently so the public knows what we are doing," Brown said.
"If we're going to put our goals on hold, and I'm fine with that, but
we need to be transparent."

Elsewhere in Vallejo, a new dispensary has opened its doors in the
past two weeks, volunteer and patient Mike Richardson told the
Times-Herald. Richardson, while unaware of a possible ordinance in
Vallejo's future or a pending lawsuit against a fellow dispensary,
was focused only on helping sick people, he said.

Richardson could not immediately produce a site supervisor or
organization head Tuesday night.

Just a few miles away, Stan the Man's Collective, a dispensary on
Warren Street, was forced to close its doors for an indefinite
period, following a superior court judge's ruling last month.

The dispensary is embroiled in a lawsuit by the city. Dispensary
founder Ken Estes admitted to losing the first round to the city last
month, that of a preliminary injunction, but said he is gearing up
for round two -- to prevent the city's attempt to permanently close
the dispensary.

"People need to throw money at it and lose a couple of times to win
the war," Estes said of his concurrent efforts to legalize
dispensaries in Vallejo and Richmond. "For some reason, a city that
is bankrupt is fighting moving forward on this."

Estes said he hopes at the very least to be involved with drafting a
city ordinance.

Deputy City Attorney Alan Cohen, who is trying the case for the city,
sees the Stan the Man case as setting a precedent for some 10 other
dispensaries in the city.

Cohen lauded last month's court ruling, saying it will likely
forecast the judge's ruling on the permanent closure.

"I think its pretty clear that the city prevailed on the Stan the Man
case," Cohen said. "(Dispensaries) continue to move in at their own
peril. There could be consequences in terms of shutting them down and
penalties."