Our Chino medical marijuana criminal defense attorneys wrote in late April about a medical marijuana dispensary in Riverside County that doesn't have a fixed home -- it's run out of a motor home. We're sorry to say that a follow-up article dated June 14 says the dispensary has been forced by threats of criminal prosecution to move out of the city of Norco and into an unincorporated part of Riverside County, where city ordinances don't exist. According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Stewart Hauptmann moved his Pace Arrow motor home out of Norco after being cited by police for possession of drug paraphernalia and operating a dispensary. He says he has not received additional citations or had other problems since the move.
The article uses Hauptmann and his Lakeview Collective to talk about the next legal battle facing California medical marijuana dispensaries: whether it's legal to run a mobile dispensary or a delivery service. We wrote briefly about this last week, when Republican candidate for district attorney Steve Cooley said he believed these businesses are not legal. In fact, the Compassionate Use Act doesn't address mobile sales, which means there's no clear guidance. But in the meantime, more dispensaries are going mobile like Hauptmann to avoid harassment or zoning law violations created by city dispensary bans. Hauptmann himself told the newspaper that he left Norco after city authorities threatened him and his wife with a restraining order. He would have had to mortgage his home to fight the legal battle, he said, so he decided to move, even though it may do a disservice to his patients.
As Anaheim medical marijuana criminal defense lawyers, we're disappointed to see that people like Hauptmann are being forced out of cities through legalized harassment. Hauptmann may have violated Norco's dispensary ban -- the article doesn't say -- but as far as we know, he's not in violation of state medical marijuana laws. And that's the only available test for whether his collective is a legitimate medical marijuana collective. Given all of that, threatening him with prosecution is legalized harassment, possibly motivated by neighbors or law enforcement officers with personal prejudices against marijuana. Note that Hauptmann was also cited for possession of drug paraphernalia. Law enforcement may have wanted to charge him with drug possession, sales or trafficking, but would not have been able to -- because at the end of the day, his collective is legal under state law.
HOWARD | NASSIRI PC does not believe that Californians should be threatened with financial ruin for running legal collectives and cooperatives. We aggressively defend owners and operators of medical marijuana dispensaries from state criminal charges involving possession, sale, cultivation and more. In some cases, our Long Beach medical marijuana criminal defense attorneys can get charges dropped or dismissed right away by showing that the clients did everything required of them to stay on the right side of the law. In other cases, we will fight in court for clients who are facing marijuana charges. Sale and transportation of drugs is a felony in California with substantial prison time involved, so this is not an academic exercise. Our goal is to keep all of our clients from unfairly facing these harsh consequences when they have complied with the law.
If you're charged with a drug crime in California for use, possession, sales or transportation of medical marijuana, don't hesitate before calling HOWARD | NASSIRI. To set up a free, confidential consultation, contact us through the Internet or call 1-800-872-5925.
