CLOSED MARIJUANA DISPENSARY ACCUSES CITY OF ELDER ABUSE

Operators of an Oceanside Boulevard marijuana dispensary closed by the
city have filed a legal claim accusing Oceanside officials of elder
abuse for denying medicine to their patients.

"If you deny someone access to their medicine, they suffer pain," said
Katherine Clifton, a lawyer for CKS Organics and operators Kenneth and
Chad Halbert.

With the city closing dispensaries, Clifton said patients have to look
for other sources of marijuana.

"It's making people that are elderly and disabled become criminals to
get medicine they're legally entitled to," Clifton said outside a
Vista Superior Courtroom on Friday.

Deputy City Attorney Annie Perrigo said outside the courtroom that
CKS' claim of elder abuse "has absolutely no merit."

City officials have refused to issue business licenses for medical
marijuana dispensaries because of a January 2010 zoning code amendment
which doesn't list dispensaries as approved businesses.

CKS closed its dispensary at 1906 Oceanside Boulevard last month after
the city got a court temporary restraining order.

Superior Court Judge Jacqueline M. Stern issued a preliminary
injunction Friday ordering CKS to remain closed pending a trial on the
city's request for a permanent injunction to close the dispensary down
for good.

No date has been set for the trial, Perrigo said.

Two other dispensaries closed by the city ---- North County Collective
and Abaca Medical Collective ---- are challenging the city's actions
in court.

North County Collective reopened last week pending an Aug. 12 court
hearing after a judge lifted his earlier temporary restraining against
the business.

Clifton said the elder abuse claim was CKS's counterargument to the
city's request for a permanent injunction.

A legal claim is a required preliminary step before someone can file a
lawsuit against a government entity.

If the city denies the claim, CKS will file a lawsuit seeking
undetermined damages, Clifton said.

"I don't think people realize the impact of closing dispensaries on
the ill and the elderly and it's time they learn," Clifton said. "I
want a jury to sit and tell these people that are elderly and ill that
it is illegal for them to get their medicine."

The judge, in ordering CKS to remain closed, ruled that CKS was
illegally operating without a business license.