City: Pot Co-op Too Close to School

A medical marijuana cooperative fighting a legal battle with the city broke state law by opening too close to a school, according to court records.

Cooperative Patients Services sits within 600 feet of , a private school established in 1977 located at 29275 Santiago Road, according to an amended complaint the city filed last week.

The co-op takes up a storefront in a strip mall at 28900 Front Street.

The state’s Health and Safety Code 11362.768 bars dispensaries from operating within 600 feet of a school.

The shop is not a dispensary, members of the group said during past interviews. It is an agricultural cooperative.

The co-op runs similarly to a nonprofit organization, members said.

It lacks any kind of nonprofit status, however, because marijuana is illegal under federal law, and only the federal government grants nonprofit status.

The city considers the co-op a dispensary because members can enter with money and leave with marijuana, City Attorney Peter Thorson said.

To read the amended complaint, click on the photo gallery above. The amended portion is action number 22 on page five.