Pot Co-op Off Hook on Technicality

A Temecula pot co-op that allegedly sold marijuana to an undercover deputy despite a court order against it got off on a technicality.

A temporary restraining order stopping Cooperative Patients’ Services from selling marijuana was not valid when the deputy bought some in early April, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The judge who extended the restraining order lacked that authority, according to a recent ruling.

The city is scheduled to amend its complaint, and a hearing on the matter is set for Friday.

Jacqueline C. Jackson, the judge who extended the restraining order, said she worked on the laws pertaining to medical marijuana as a district attorney, so she was unfit to hear the case, according to court records.

Her last move before the case left her hands on March 30 was to extend the restraining order, but as of that time, she lacked that power, Judge Craig G. Riemer ruled.

“We don’t agree with it, to be quite honest,” said Peter Thorson, the city’s attorney. “It’s a pretty technical point of law.”

The co-op asked the court to stay an injunction preventing it from selling marijuana in the city limits, but a decision was not yet made.

The city banned marijuana dispensaries in 2004 and took the co-op to court for violating the ban. Officials from the co-op argued their organization is not a dispensary, but rather an agricultural cooperative.

Patients grow the marijuana and bring it to the co-op. The co-op pays them for it and resells it to other patients. The group’s organizers claimed the group is not for profit, though the co-op is not a registered nonprofit organization, according to the IRS.