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Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 1:24 pm | by cadfy
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BY JAVIER PANZAR / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published July 15, 2011
Updated July 19, 2011
BREA For six months, this city has engaged in a legal battle to shut down three medical-marijuana dispensaries, with the disputes playing out in court rooms and closed-session City Council meetings.
But now -- after one clinic was forcibly shuttered by a court-appointed receiver last week for violating a judge's order to close -- medical-marijuana supporters are getting vocal and say they will take their concerns to Brea's streets.
Members of Physis Patients Association, one of the membership medical-marijuana dispensaries, plan to stage a demonstration in front of City Hall early next month to protest the city's legal fight against the clinics, which the city bans. The clinics' supporters say lawsuits waste taxpayer's dollars during tough times. Mayor Roy Moore said the effort to close the three clinics has cost the city at least $200,000 so far.
"They are doing budget cuts then running around spending on these lawsuits," said Rod Hansen, a retired Los Angeles County firefighter and long-time Brea resident helping organize the protest. "They need to drop the lawsuits, stop spending money, and instead have ordinances that limit and regulate dispensaries."
Physis, for its part, decided to reopen July 6 after shutting down for two weeks despite also having a court order placed on it to close. The clinic's owner, Shibli Ziadeh, decided to close the shop while waiting to hear from an appeals court but said recently that he re-opened his doors to prove a point.
"It is the principle behind it," Ziadeh said from behind his desk at the Physis office on a quiet, empty strip mall on Imperial highway. "The state says 'Yes, you can do it as long as you follow state guidelines,' and that is what we are doing."
Ziadeh said he expects another round of legal action from the city, which contends the three shops are violating a city law banning all medical-marijuana dispensaries. The city could go to court and attempt to forcibly close this clinic as well.
The day after a judge appointed a receiver to shut down Brea Medical Referral Network for violating the order to close, Patrick Bobko, an attorney for the city, said in a letter to Ziadeh's lawyer that the city hoped Physis would remain closed, adding, "we thought we should bring to your attention the potential consequences if your client has a change of heart."
The letter does not spell out any consequences.
At the center of the fight between Brea and the three dispensaries is whether a city's ban of such clinics trumps existing state law allowing them. It is a seemingly simple question, said Anthony Curiale, Physis' lawyer, but as of yet no court has issued a clear decision on the matter and until one does, cities and dispensaries throughout the state are in limbo.
Brea's cases against the dispensaries are set for trial in December. City officials have said they are concerned about the dispensaries attracting crime and keeping customers away from other businesses.
Meanwhile, Ziadeh a 50-year-old retired chef from Artesia who turned to medical-marijuana when a kidney disease worsened, said he is going to continue dispensing medical marijuana. Patients will continue to pick up the wide variety of marijuana-infused products his clinic offers, including ice cream, cookies, lollipops and popcorn, until the city serves him with a new complaint.
And when that happens, he said, the shop will stop dispensing but stay open to organize for the coming protest.
"I will close and re-open until we get a court decision, because I am not going away," he said. "I am a hemorrhoid. I will never go."
Moore, Brea's mayor, said he respects the protester's right to demonstrate but doubts the City Council will change the law banning the dispensaries.
"If the courts would say 'Hey, Brea, you are absolutely 100-percent wrong in what your are doing,' then I would say we would certainly have to kick back and look at what we have done and decide whether we have to challenge (in) the courts," he said. "I'd hate to do that, because we are spending tons of money on this thing, and I am not big on spending taxpayers' money on things like this."
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