Medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives are being shut down by police in San Bernardino, preventing California medical marijuana cards holders from accessing their medicine legally.
In San Bernardino, holders of California medical marijuana cards are currently pitted in a battle with the city over it’s non-issuance of the necessary permits for medical marijuana collectives and dispensaries to operate within the borders of the city. Earlier in the month, the police served seven different dispensaries and collective with warrants, citing them for violating the city’s municipal codes.
In 2010, the city banned collectives and dispensaries due to complaints from citizens, effectively rejecting all active permits and refusing to issue new ones.
“Our own citizens are calling and are concerned about their neighborhood.” City Attorney, Jolena Grider, told The Sun.
Of the seven that have been cited by police, one has already been closed.
The passage of Proposition 215 in 2003 effectively decriminalized medical marijuana in the state of California and created the medical marijuana program, managed by the California Department of Public Health, which is tasked with managing and regulating California medical marijuana cards.
The prop also allowed for dispensaries and collectives to operate throughout the state to provide patients with medicinal marijuana, operating as nonprofit entities.
Several cities still refuse to allow dispensaries or collectives, and cite the federal Controlled Substances Act, which places marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance.
The collectives and dispensaries in question are planning to file a suit with state supreme court in the near future to get an official ruling.
Holders of California medical marijuana cards are still protected under state laws, they just have to travel further now to get their medicine.
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