Modesto Bee: Clinic will stay open, for now - August 22, 2006

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<i>Medical marijuana store keeps fighting city's order </i>

August 22, 2006
By ADAM ASHTON
BEE STAFF WRITER
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12619359p-13324635c.html

A McHenry Avenue medical marijuana clinic is fighting to stay open a month after it was supposed to close.

The Modesto City Council passed a moratorium on medical marijuana clinics in December, ordering the California Healthcare Collective to stop selling pot to patients by July 14.

The collective won a reprieve in the spring and earlier this month filed a lawsuit against the city, seeking to overturn the council order.

However, Oakland attorney James Anthony said the clinic is waiting to serve the city while it negotiates to stay open. That means the lawsuit is on file in Stanislaus County Superior Court, but it is not going anywhere.

Anthony said the clinic initiated the lawsuit because of a breakdown in talks with the city attorney's office. He said those negotiations are progressing, though he didn't have a timetable regarding when or if the clinic would follow through on the lawsuit.

The clinic intends to stay open, possibly by persuading the city that its medical marijuana ban doesn't apply to the McHenry Avenue shop, Anthony said.

"The collective is a lawful, beneficial nonprofit. Why would we want to close it?" Anthony asked.

The city attorney's office declined to comment.

Clinic director Ricardo Montes did not return a phone call Monday.

The lawsuit alleges that the council's ban violates state laws that allow people to possess, use and grow medical marijuana. Dispensaries such as the clinic on McHenry Avenue help sick people who can't grow marijuana to get their medicine, supporters say.

The lawsuit also claims the ban would harm two Modesto medical marijuana users, one of whom has breast cancer, by requiring them to travel to retrieve the drug. Neither patient could be reached for comment Monday.

The Modesto council passed its moratorium with a 5-0 vote Dec.6 after heated arguments between people who said they relied on medical marijuana to treat debilitating illnesses and others who said the clinic encouraged illegal drug use.

Federal law does not allow for the use or possession of medical marijuana. That distinction put the city in an awkward position of permitting an illegal activity by allowing the dispensary to do business, former City Attorney Michael Milich argued at the December meeting.

Other Modesto officials said the clinic taxed the Police Department's resources. Police indicated they had found medical marijuana prescriptions at drug busts before the council's vote.

"That really wasn't something that fits the community values that Modesto is trying to achieve," said police Sgt. Craig Gundlach, who led the department's investigation into the marijuana dispensary.

A medical marijuana supporter who attended the December meeting said the city's law was too strict, making it vulnerable to the collective's potential lawsuit.

"The Modesto City Council has taken a stand against our rights," said Nathan Sands, communications director for the Compassionate Coalition, a Sacramento advocacy group.

Modesto's medical marijuana ban spurred similar measures throughout Stanislaus County. Ceres, Hughson, Riverbank, Turlock and Waterford have taken steps to block medical marijuana clinics.

Bee staff writer Adam Ashtoncan be reached at 578-2366 or aashton@modbee.com.

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WHAT IT MEANS

ISSUE: A Modesto ordinance that prohibits medical marijuana dispensaries.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: The law would force a McHenry Avenue clinic to close, obliging its patients to go elsewhere for a drug condoned by state law for people whose doctors recommend it.

WHAT'S NEXT: The California Healthcare Collective is in talks with the city to stay open. It has filed a lawsuit in Stanislaus County Superior Court, but the clinic is not pushing the lawsuit forward.

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Modesto Bee: Clinic will stay open, for now - August 22, 2006

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