Just two weeks after the San Diego City Attorney's Office filed complaints to shut down a dozen marijuana dispensaries, a judge today signed orders closing nine of the businesses.
"We are pleased that Judge (Ronald) Prager has enforced the law today and ordered these nine illegal marijuana dispensaries to be shut down,'' said City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. "We have shut down about 40 illegal marijuana dispensaries in the past 12 months. But we have a lot more work to do.''
The City Attorney's Office plans to file another group of complaints Thursday seeking injunctions against additional marijuana dispensaries that are in violation of federal and local laws, according to Goldsmith.
In the city of San Diego, marijuana dispensaries are not permitted in any zone. Under federal law, the distribution of marijuana for any purpose in considered illegal drug trafficking.
U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy sent letters today to the original 12 marijuana dispensaries that the city sued last week, notifying the operators they are in violation of federal law and demanding they shut down.
"Marijuana advocates and their lawyers have been wrong to assume that federal and local laws could be ignored and that cities like San Diego could be strong-armed into looking the other way,'' Goldsmith said. "Our job is to enforce the law and we will do it.''
The nine marijuana dispensaries that were ordered to close are:
- Herbameds on Federal Boulevard;
- Trichomes Inc. on Park Boulevard;
- Healing Arts Cooperative on Park Boulevard;
- All Green Health Cooperative on Fifth Avenue;
- West Coast Wellness on El Cajon Boulevard;
- Absolute Collective Inc. on Fourth Avenue;
- Green Hope Dispensary on El Cajon Boulevard;
- MediMart on El Cajon Boulevard; and
- Medical Miracle Collective on Park Boulevard.
