Pot Co-op to Open Second Temecula Location

An embattled medical marijuana group is set to open a second location in Temecula.

Cooperative Patients' Services, which runs a location on Old Town Front Street, recently got its occupancy permits for a location in an auto strip mall at 43122 Via Dos Picos, according to the City of Temecula.

It plans to open the new location on Labor Day, said Robin Sax, the organization's attorney.

The cooperative will keep both locations, but use them differently, according to Sax.

"One location (will be used for an) educational facility and the new one is where the dispensing will occur," Sax said.

The organization has been locked in a legal battle with Temecula since March, when the city issued a restraining order to stop it from dispensing.

to read about the battle.

The co-op is operating illegally because its business license bars selling or distributing marijuana, said the city's Planning Director Patrick Richardson.

"If they're dispensing marijuana, they're doing it without a business license," he said.

The city tried the usual course of action against the co-op by taking it to court, but the suit was stayed until the court of appeals makes a ruling on whether a city can legally ban marijuana dispensaries.

To read about the case, .

This does not make the co-op legal, it only means the city cannot enforce the law until the court rules on the suit, Richardson said.

The co-op does the best it can to comply with the tangled laws dictating medical marijuana use in California, Sax said.

"(The co-op) is working very hard each and every day to make sure we run our business in the best legal, medical and professional way possible," she said.