Did City's Pot Ordinance Need Environmental Impact Report?

The Union of Medical Marijuana Patients filed an unusual legal challenge today to the city's medical marijuana ordinance, arguing the city failed to do an environmental impact report on the law aimed at reducing the number of pot dispensaries.

The group alleges an ordinance passed by the City Council in January 2010 to reduce the number of medical marijuana clinics in the city from hundreds down to 100 required an environmental impact report under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr put a hold on the ordinance last December, ruling that the city's procedure for limiting the number of dispensaries was unconstitutional. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's office has since revised the ordinance and appealed the ruling.

The City Attorney's office declined to comment. Spokesman Frank Mateljan said attorneys had not had enough time to review the lawsuit.

"The city's argument that the CEQA only applies to development projects and not administrative changes is incorrect," the union's attorney Jamie Hall said in a statement. "The city is compelled to consider the results of this dramatic change to the neighborhoods of the surviving patient associations or collectives."

Hall said that could include a potential increase in traffic, parking, noise, land use, air and water pollution and utilities.

For example, Hall said, the elimination of available locations means cultivation at the remaining clinics would have to dramatically increase, requiring a dramatic increase in the use of electricity and water.

While defending the city from dozens of lawsuits against the medical marijuana ordinance, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has continued to try and shut down dispensaries. His attorneys filed suit in May to force seven pot shops to close for operating in areas that are not zoned for medical marijuana outlets. Two of those shops

Despite Trutanich's efforts to get tough on dispensaries, and a citywide ban on new dispensaries as a result of the revised ordinance from January 2010, more . Trutanich's office also sent letters to over 200 shops in the city that had not registered for the lottery and ordered them to close, but many of those in the North Hollywood area remain open.

James Shaw, the union's director, said the city's medical marijuana ordinance effectively relegates clinics to remote industrial areas of the city, forcing patients to drive long distances to fill marijuana prescriptions. He said as many as 75,000-100,000 patients could be affected. The law requires clinics to be at least 1,000 feet from schools, libraries, parks, child care facilities, religious institutions, drug rehab centers, youth centers, residential zones and other collectives.   Shaw is expected to hold a news conference on the steps of City Hall tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.

-- City News Service