California court rules on medical marijuana dispensaries

May 06, 2013

The California Supreme Court has ruled that cities and counties in that state can ban medical marijuana dispensaries.

In a unanimous opinion, the court determined that California’s medical marijuana laws—the nation’s first—don’t prevent local governments from using their land-use powers to zone dispensaries out of existence. They also don’t grant authorized users convenient access to medical marijuana. The ruling came in a legal challenge to a ban enacted by the city of Riverside in 2010, but nearly two hundred other jurisdictions have similar prohibitions on retail pot sales. Arizona voters approved the state’s medical marijuana program in November of 2010, but dispensaries only started opening earlier this year. As of the end of April, there were sixteen dispensaries approved to operate in Arizona. Steve Goldstein, KJZZ News, Phoenix.