JUDGE REFUSES TO LIFT L.A. POT STORE INJUNCTION

L.A. Sought the Action As the Council Works on Amending Law to
Determine Which Sites Can Sell Marijuana.

The judge who declared that key parts of Los Angeles' medical
marijuana ordinance are unconstitutional refused to stay his
injunction Friday as the City Council works on an amended version,
and he rebuffed the city's request for advice on how to rewrite the law.

"I don't want to legislate. I'm not the City Council," Los Angeles
County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr said at a hearing. "I
really think I'm going to decline that invitation."

The judge also decided that the dispensaries that asked for the
injunction must post a bond. He proposed $250,000 but did not set the
amount. The city asked for $1 million; the dispensaries argued for no bond.

Jane Usher, a special assistant city attorney, said the city would
now ask a state appellate court to stay the injunction. She said it
would take at least 45 days for an amended ordinance to take effect.

Mohr said that responding to the city's request for guidance would
violate the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative
branches. But he acknowledged the difficulties Los Angeles has had
writing an ordinance after hundreds of dispensaries opened as the
city failed to enforce a ban on new stores.

"As a very famous president once said, 'I feel your pain,'" he said.

In the injunction he issued a month ago, Mohr ruled that the city
cannot use the list of 182 dispensaries registered under the city's
2007 moratorium as a basis to determine which stores are legal. Under
the ordinance, only those stores were allowed to apply to remain open
and all others had to shut down.

Mohr concluded that the City Council failed to follow proper
procedure when it extended the moratorium, so that the registration
deadline came after the law had expired. The City Council, taking a
suggestion Mohr included in his ruling, is likely to allow only
dispensaries that can prove they were open on the date the moratorium
took effect, rather than using the registration list.

But the city attorney's office asked the judge whether it could still
use the list, which prioritized dispensaries by date of registration,
to determine the order in which they will be allowed to choose their
locations. The ordinance limits the number of dispensaries by
community planning areas and requires them to be at least 1,000 feet
apart. Dispensaries say this will create an unfair and unworkable
musical chairs approach.

With the judge's refusal to weigh in, it's unclear whether the city
will stick with the priority list, given that it is based on the same
expired law and is certain to draw more lawsuits. Usher declined
Friday to discuss the draft ordinance, which she said could go to the
council on Wednesday.

City attorneys argued for a $1-million bond, saying the injunction
has been seen as a "green light" to open new dispensaries and
predicting higher police costs to prevent another dispensary
free-for-all. The Angeles Police Department says it conducted at
least 41 raids last year, costing an estimated $146,218.30.

Lawyers for the dispensaries argued that their clients should not be
held liable for actions taken by rogue dispensaries. "It wouldn't be
rational. It wouldn't be fair," Stanley H. Kimmel argued.

Mohr also rejected the city's request to issue a stay while the City
Council works on the ordinance, asking, "Don't we want to incentivize
the city to do something quickly?"