Challenge to Palm Springs dispensary limits overruled by judge

(The Desert Sun) A legal challenge to Palm Spring’s recent ordinance regulating medical marijuana collectives was overruled Tuesday by a Riverside County Superior Court judge, court records show.

Judge Harold W. Hopp’s decision to uphold Palm Spring’s “authority to enact reasonable zoning restrictions” on collectives leaves the fate of several collectives in the city up in the air, said J. David Nick, attorney for Palm Springs-based The Holistic Collective.

The collective, at 2235 N. Palm Canyon Drive, filed a June 4 demurrer, which Hopp overruled. The collective challenged the legality of a city ordinance enacted in April that limits the number of collectives to two and prohibits them from operating outside of industrial and manufacturing zones.

Palm Springs is the only city in Riverside County to pass a law allowing medical marijuana dispensaries.

The state laws on dispensaries should trump any local laws, Nick said Tuesday. Hopp’s decision, however, found the state laws to be “limited in scope, exempting medical users and their primary caregivers from criminal liability.”

Oakland is a city of around 420,000 people.  Four dispensaries there mean a coverage of about 1 per 105K.

The greater Los Angeles area is a metro area of around 12,900,000 people.  The 281 dispensaries (listed at California NORML, other reports put the number around 600-700) mean a coverage of about 1 per 45K.

Palm Springs is a city of around 50,000 people.  Two dispensaries mean a coverage of about 1 per 25K.  Now, to be fair, Riverside County contains about 2,000,000 people, for a coverage of 1 per 1,000K.  However, that’s not Palm Springs’ fault, that’s the fault of other cities in Riverside County not allowing any dispensaries.

How many dispensaries are “too many”?  Two sounds like too few to me, but I also respect the right of cities to make zoning ordinances to limit commercial growth of any sort (I wish they’d focus that energy more on fast food outlets, though.)  It’s a tough call.