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Pot dispensary owners sue SLO County

January 21, 2016

Medical marijaunaThe owners of Ethnobotanica, a nonprofit medical marijuana delivery service, have sued San Luis Obispo County over the board of supervisors decision to reject a proposed brick and mortar dispensary in Nipomo.

San Luis Obispo attorney Babak Nacify filed a lawsuit on Jan. 4 on behalf of Ryan Booker and Stephanie Kiel, who co-own Ethnobotanica. Booker has maintained a leadership role with the nonprofit, despite having his lengthy criminal history come to light.

The lawsuit claims the county abused its discretion because the denial of the project was not supported by substantial evidence. Rather, three supervisors voted to deny the dispensary based on vague and generalized concerns, the suit states.

On Nov. 3, the board voted 3-2 against a proposal to open a 2,500-square foot medical marijuana dispensary near the Santa Barbara County line.

Supervisors Bruce Gibson and Adam Hill cast the two votes in favor of the dispensary. They argued the applicant could file a costly lawsuit if the board turned down the proposal.

Supervisors Debbie Arnold, Lynn Compton and Frank Mecham voted against the dispensary proposal. They cited crime and traffic concerns.

Additionally, both SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson and District Attorney Dan Dow spoke at the November meeting in opposition to the planned dispensary. Parkinson said the response time to the location would not be good because it is on the outskirts of the county.

SLO County has an ordinance that allows medical marijuana dispensaries under certain conditions. However, county supervisors have rejected all four dispensary proposals that have come before the board since the adoption of the ordinance.


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i fear unless the dystopian & criminal MMRSA is revoked in its entirety; the case ethno is presenting will be invalid. certainly if nobody in the county can even grow Cannabis; a dispensary is out of the question.


“Parkinson said the response time to the location would not be good because it is on the outskirts of the county.”


ok; how about opening up one next door to the PD?


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These archaic reefer madness arguments against marijuana need to changed. People should do research before spewing misinformation about the “horrors” of marijuana.


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Studies have proved that Marijuana does provide pain relief to people who are genuinely ill.

When the law to allow the sale of “Medical Marijuana” was passed, that opened up the floodgates for all the pot heads. Also those unscrupulous doctors who are more than willing to hand out a prescription for anything from ingrowing toe nails to phantom back problems.

Nonprofit give me a break, people who are involved in this industry are not involved just out of the goodness of their hearts… it’s big money. I had a building that had sat empty for a year and was approached by a person who was wanting to open a Medical Marijuana dispensary.

He told me to just name my price he was willing to pay anything I wanted to rent this building.

That informed me know how much money these dispensaries can make. He was informed that there was no way I would ever do that to the community where the building was located..


If there is anything we can do to relieve the genuinely ill from pain and suffering then it should be done. This prescription drug should be distributed where all prescription drugs are, in the hands of a professionally qualified person, namely a Pharmacist.


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Cannabis isn’t really a drug; there is nothing done to “process” cannabis, other than to harvest it, cut it up and let it dry. To intake of it in a manner that one gets a high from, it has to be heated in some manner, either smoking it or baking it, or possibly vaporizing it.


Drugs on the other hand, ALL have to be made or processed heavily- therefore, cannabis isn’t really a drug, in comparison to all other “Schedule 1” drugs. Our current, legal classification at the federal level is antiquated and completely out of touch with the actual reality of what constitutes drugs.


We don’t need to have pharmacists being a distributor of cannabis, either medicinal or recreational- we simply need to make cannabis consumption legal in the state of California like has been done in Colorado, Oregon, Washington state and so on.


The repressive “War on Drugs” was never about protecting our children from drugs, it was based on racism and a move to militarize our police forces. Enough is enough.


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Well, I sort of disagree.


If we are using the argument that a person is using marijuana for medicinal purposes, it SHOULD have a dose. If I have anxiety, I am not just given 1,000 Xanax pills and told to come back when I need more. I would be given a prescribed dose, not to exceed that amount.


So technically, A dose would be ideal to prevent overuse. 250mg measured marijuana every 6 hours as needed for anxiety, headache,back pain, blah blah blah.


It’s a thought.


If we are legalizing it to be recreational like alcohol, that’s different. But to say it’s “medicine”, well, it needs a dose, a frequency, and a reason WHY/when to take.


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An the wine an liquor lobbyists win again.


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Go Babak!


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Up here in Oregon we had the same hand wringing and obfuscation before allowing Pot shops to open, Now there are Cannabis shops all over town. And nothing has happened, nothing except the county is going to rake in a pile of dough.


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Dow and Parkinson see approval as a gateway drug. A gateway to eliminating 90% of what their jobs are about. If drugs are legal you can literally remove 90% of law enforcement.


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The county leadership “hinted” that a more remote location might not have the push-back of local residents since it would be isolated and not interfere with established businesses and/or residences, schools and churches; the applicants find a location that seemingly suits all major concerns by being located far enough away from any who might be “harmed” by a fully legal operation. At what seems the very last second in the procedures, the Sheriff’s Department and the DA come out with the reasoning that because the location is so remote, there cannot be a “reasonable” response time, should there be a need for an emergency roll out.


Bait and switch; I hope that the owners of Ethnobotanica are successful in their lawsuit, or, the DA’s office comes to its’ senses, advises County Council, the Sheriff’s Department, and most importantly, the Board of Supervisors that settling this lawsuit by allowing the applicant to actually open their business at the location that was proposed. Win-win for the taxpayers and the business owners and all of their potential customers who want to buy their legal product in a legal manner that is operated in a safe manner.


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and if they did their research they would see that legalization actually drops the crime rates!


http://www.msnbc.com/all/does-marijuana-lower-the-crime-rate

“Not only does medical marijuana legalization not correlate with an uptick in crime, researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas argue it may actually reduce it.”


http://www.alternet.org/marijuana-decriminalization-drops-youth-crime-rates-stunning-20-one-year

“Arrests for youths for the largest single drug category, marijuana, fell by 9,000 to a level not seen since before the 1980s implementation of the ‘war on drugs,’ ” Males wrote in the report, released in October.


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Most interesting that the two supes with the most dubious reputations voted for this career criminal who whines “I ‘ve only been arrested once since my son was born.” Now, there is a line for your resume…


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“dubious reputations? ”


i may be dyslexic; but it looks like you have this backwards. ;)


those in favor of dystopian; outdated; and irrelevant propaganda; have “dubious reputations”


quite simple; right?


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