JUDGE ISSUES TENTATIVE RULING IN DANA POINT POT CASE

What could have been the beginning of the end of a legal battle
between Dana Point and a medical marijuana dispensary may just be
another delay, according to a judge's tentative ruling on the case.

Orange County Superior Court Judge William Monroe said in a tentative
ruling on Thursday that he planned to deny the city's motion for a
summary judgment (which means a decision would be made without a
trial) regarding the city's nuisance lawsuit against Beach Cities
Collective. His final ruling is scheduled for later Thursday afternoon.

Monroe said he could not make a summary judgment because disputed
facts remained, which would need to be cleared up at the trial level.

For more than a year the city has been battling various medical
marijuana dispensaries for what the city believes is illegal conduct.
The brawl has been stalled by a variety of side cases involving
medical privacy issues and one woman's lawsuit against the city for
cutting off her access to medical marijuana. At one point a side
issue brought the case to the California Supreme Court.

The state allows for medical marijuana dispensaries, but a variety of
cities have passed zoning laws banning dispensaries from setting up
in town. Dana Point does not have a ban, but the city argues because
the use is not mentioned in the city code, it is therefore banned.

Another superior court judge is scheduled to deliver his ruling on
the city's motion for summary judgment against another dispensary,
Holistic Health, on Feb. 25, according to court records.

At one point at least six dispensaries were operating in the town
with a population of about 33,000 people. That number was whittled
down to three over the past two years. Currently, no known
dispensaries are operating as the city red-tagged the remaining three
earlier this month on a variety of code violations. One, Point
Alternative Care, was searched by police with a warrant. Police have
not released what items were found during the search.

Code violations included security system, certificate of occupancy
and construction permit issues. The city had sent the dispensaries a
notice of violation 10 days prior to closure. The city never entered
the buildings before sending out the notices of violations. The
findings were based on what dispensary owners had said in court
documents about their facilities and what city staff observed from
the outside of the buildings.

Holistic Health and Beach Cities appealed the closures, but after a
six-hour hearing in which all sides presented their case to a retired
judge hired as a hearing official and almost two weeks of waiting for
a decision, the appeals were denied. The dispensaries have both filed
separate lawsuits against the city claiming the owners' rights to due
process had been violated.

The city has spent more than $370,000 on legal costs relating to
medical marijuana.

When asked if the City Council would consider putting the issue of
medical marijuana on a council agenda as a discussion item after the
cases are finished in court, Council Members Lara Anderson, Scott
Schoeffel and Lisa Bartlett said they could not comment on the issue
due to the pending litigation. Council Members Bill Brough and Steven
Weinberg did not respond to requests for comments sent via e-mail.