The council members said they sympathize with patients who need marijuana to ease their pain, but they’re worried about (a) regulating the dispensaries and (b) how such businesses would affect Garden Grove neighborhoods.

Some Orange County cities with moratoriums or permanent bans [...]]]> The Garden Grove City Council voted to ban pot dispensaries earlier this week (KNX1070)

The council members said they sympathize with patients who need marijuana to ease their pain, but they’re worried about (a) regulating the dispensaries and (b) how such businesses would affect Garden Grove neighborhoods.

Some Orange County cities with moratoriums or permanent bans on pot dispensaries include:

• Buena Park
• Fullerton
• Mission Viejo
• Santa Ana
• Tustin
• Huntington Beach
• Placentia

*** Laguna Woods last week became the first local city to pass an ordinance allowing medical marijuana dispensaries.

More on the City Council decision from The OC Register:

Council members voted 4-1 for the ordinance prohibiting the dispensaries, with Councilman Mark Rosen casting the sole dissenting vote.

Rosen said he would like more information from police about an existing unauthorized medical marijuana clinic in Garden Grove.

“I’d like to find out if this facility has had any negative impacts on the community,” he said.

Police officials said no incidents were reported at or near the dispensary on Brookhurst Street in the seven months it has operated. Several speakers at the meeting also said they have been buying their marijuana from this business popularly known among users as “Unit D.”

Police officials confirmed that the business at that location was licensed as a dance studio but operating as a medical marijuana dispensary. No children were seen there taking dance lessons, officials said.

Joe Byron, the owner of the dispensary in question, told the council that he was not operating covertly and in fact has a general retail license from the city to do business. He said the business at the location before his was a dance studio.

“We weren’t trying to be covert or sneaky,” he said. “In fact, we do quite a bit of Internet marketing.”

But the rest of the council was firmly in support of the ban.

The OC Register confirms that this is [...]]]> The OC Register with the story of Orange County man James Spray, a 52 year old medical cannabis patient who finally got his 4 ounces of seized medical marijuana back from the police today, after Huntington Beach police had seized his stash and held it for over three years!

The OC Register confirms that this is the second time in 2008 that Huntington Beach police have been ordered to return medical cannabis to a patient, “after court rulings stated that the marijuana should not have been seized in the first place.”

I encourage you all to read the article in it’s entirety here. However, if you’re in the zone and don’t feel like clicking anywhere else, here are the key highlights:

It has been almost three years since Huntington Beach officers confiscated Spray’s estimated 4 ounces of marijuana and a $1,000 growing system, which included special lighting and a water-timing system.

While police had destroyed most of the growing equipment, officials returned Spray’s marijuana today after an order from Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Borris.

The order came nearly nine months after the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that the city must return Spray’s marijuana and equipment taken from his home in Nov. 2005. Spray was represented by attorneys with medical marijuana advocacy group, Americans for Safe Access.

The Huntington Beach Police Department doesn’t have a policy regarding medical marijuana, officials have said in the past. Officers interpret the Compassionate Use Act as protecting medical marijuana recipients from prosecution, not arrest.

The 1996 law allows people to use medical marijuana in California. Federal law, however, outlaws all marijuana use.

On Aug. 25, state Attorney General Jerry Brown developed guidelines for the first time since the passing of the act. The most notable guideline upholds the legality of medical marijuana dispensaries that operate as nonprofit cooperatives or collectives.

In addition, the new directive essentially tells law enforcement officials that they cannot take marijuana from medical marijuana patients in the first place and are not allowed to charge them if they are carrying less than 8 ounces.

Agencies, such as Huntington Beach, however, are still trying to figure out what to make of Brown’s directive since it is opinion and not law, officials said.

About six months ago, Dave Lucas of Huntington Beach also retrieved his purple urkel – a higher end marijuana – and a couple of smoking pipes officers confiscated from him more than a year ago.

Lucas retrieved his medical marijuana in April, after waiting for the California Supreme Court to decline to review an appellate court ruling, which ordered Garden Grove police to return seized medical marijuana to Felix Kha.

In November, Kha won the right to get his medical marijuana returned to him. A month later, the same court also ruled in Spray’s favor.

“Hopefully they’ll stop taking people’s medicine away,” Spray said today out loud in the police lobby.

Spray said he plans to file a claim against Huntington Beach because of his destroyed marijuana growing equipment. Medical marijuana advocates Bill Britt and Marvin Chavez Sr., who were there for support, helped Spray with the about half a dozen bags of once-seized pot.

“Do you know how much of a pleasure it is to take medicine from the department?” Chavez, a medical marijuana patient and advocate, said. “It’s such a victory.”