Medical Pot Collective Closes Under City Pressure
The defunct Temecula Caregivers Collective is the second medical marijuana group the city battled in court.
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The second medical marijuana group the city waged a legal battle against agreed to close down today.
The Temecula Caregivers Collective, which rented a storefront at 27911 Jefferson Ave., agreed to a permanent injunction, court records show.
“Basically, they just agreed to close down,” said Peter Thorson, the city’s attorney today.
The city filed a complaint against the organization April 4, and a judge granted a temporary restraining order the next day stopping the group from dispensing marijuana, the records show.
The group operated a dispensary despite a city ordinance banning it. Also, it lacked a business license and certificate of occupancy, according to the complaint.
The collective is not a dispensary, said Jeff Lowe, one of the heads of the collective during an interview last month.
The organization buys marijuana from members who grow it and sell it to other members on a not-for-profit basis, he said.
The city asked the judge to fine the three defendants, including Lowe, Petar and Rosy Marovic, up to $25,000. It also asked the judge to have everything inside the storefront sold off, and if the revenue from the sale doesn’t pay for the efforts of cleaning the building out, to sell the building to pay for it. Also, it asked the court to close that suite down for a year and the defendants pay the city a year’s worth of fair market rent.
Nobody came to the door earlier today and the phone number went unanswered today.
This suite is the second the city filed against a medical marijuana organization. The city is fighting to close down Cooperative Patients’ Services, which runs in a storefront at 28900 Old Town Front St.
A judge granted a restraining order against organization stopping it from dispensing marijuana. The group then violated the restraining order by selling marijuana to an undercover deputy, according to court records.
If the group is unable to prove it didn’t sell to the deputy during a hearing this Tuesday, it will be ordered to pay $14,000, court records show.
Steve
2:40 pm on Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Good Job G L! You are right in your comment to John.In addition I know that the Co-Op on Front Street paid rent on an empty building going through the hoops to get a city a business license and certificate of occupancy. Both were given to the Co-Op and are hanging on their wall. City fathers including the Chief of Police were invited to check them out. Instead someone at the city has changed their mind and starts a lawsuit at great expense to the taxpayers. Higher courts have already expressed opinions on this issue, which is "Can a city BAN that which the State and it's voters have approved".
tmec patron
2:53 pm on Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Seems to me that if you need a medical prescription for it, then you should be getting it from the doctor that prescribed it. Plenty of people are on some kind of medication that requires one and where do they have to get their meds? from a pharmacy!!!! As for the wineries, they have a license to sell alcohol and card patrons and also have a cut off, too drunk.... no more for you, and they bring a large amount of revenue to the city of Temecula, what kind of profit is this business bringing to our cities? a bunch of wasted kids and adults who could be taking some other kind of approved medication to help his anxiety, or chemical imbalance. Medical need? ha! its just a legal way to be a pothead.
Fired up
3:23 pm on Thursday, March 22, 2012
Some of you people are so uneducated its embarassing. Hopefully someone you love or care about will never be in the position to need to medicate with medical cannabis a perfectly natural way to medicate with NO harmful side effects.
TVOR
4:13 pm on Thursday, April 21, 2011
I am a proponent of legalizing marijuana because it needs to be controlled. Right now anyone with a few bucks can get a bogus card to buy marijuana from an unethical doctor. Shame on the doctors who hand out medical marijuana cards like they are candy! We should just legalize it and spend a small amount of money controlling it rather than spending billions in a useless effort to combat it.
Steve
2:21 pm on Friday, April 22, 2011
Hey John. Where did you go? JOHN?????? Did the City Boss take your computer away or did you finally read the State Law?
TVOR
10:55 am on Wednesday, April 27, 2011
In no way did I indicate that all doctors who prescribe medical marijuana are unethical. I do assert, however, that there are many who are. I don't know what percentage but they are definitely out there.
TVOR
11:33 am on Wednesday, April 27, 2011
You mean the way people pick and choose which laws to obey?
TVOR
10:12 pm on Wednesday, April 27, 2011
GL your right that 2 wrongs don't make a right but nobody can enforce all of the laws all of the time just as nobody can obey all of the laws all of the time. Police enforce laws based on directives of their department and their own experience. Some laws are simply a higher priority for enforcement than others. There are many factors that set the priorities.
Carl Sody
7:11 am on Thursday, April 28, 2011
Law Enforcement Directives may not be in conflict with State Law. The problem is that most law enforcement agencies do not develop policies or directives whatsoever. Riverside County Sheriffs Department did not publish a directive until November 2009, which was 13 years after passage of Prop. 215 and nearly five years after the legislature passed SB420. Bias is difficult to combat and ignorance is more problematic, stupidity is inexcusable; yet the City continues to waste valuable capital resources on excessive court actions (one such contempt allegation which LOST yesterday in court) you can read about it on Press Enterprise at
http://www.pe.com/localnews/temecula/stories/PE_News_Local_D_shearing28.20a0c78.html
TVOR
4:19 pm on Thursday, April 28, 2011
GL, I gues it depends on how you look at it. Do you really want the police enforcing every single law equally? You could get several tickets in one day. Due to manpower shortages and such the police have to prioritize enforcement efforts. It's not about complacency at all, not to say that there aren't some cops who are complacent. It sucks when a cop decides to enforce a law you disagree with.