Pubdate: Thu, 10 Feb 2011
Source: Record, The (Stockton, CA)
Copyright: 2011 The Record
Contact: http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=A_OPINION05
Website: http://www.recordnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/428
Author: Daniel Thigpen
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Dispensaries
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

STOCKTON SETTLES CASE AGAINST POT COLLECTIVE

STOCKTON - The city will end its year-old court case against a 
medical marijuana collective under a legal settlement the City 
Council approved late Tuesday.

In exchange, Pathways Family Health Cooperative Counseling Inc. will 
pay the city $25,000 and will be barred from ever again opening a 
dispensary in Stockton.

Lynn Smith, the collective's director, declined to comment.

Pathways opened on East Acacia Street in November 2009, reviving a 
long-dormant city discussion over dispensary regulations, an issue 
that had been debated years before but abandoned.

Four months later, the city sought to close the outlet, claiming it 
opened under false pretenses and arguing the dispensary should not be 
open before the city had figured out how to regulate such businesses.

A San Joaquin County Superior Court judge in June ordered the 
dispensary to suspend its operations and pay $40,000 in fines. 
Pathways later appealed.

The city has since adopted dispensary regulations and is reviewing 
applications for three permits. In the meantime, Smith has opened a 
new dispensary under a different collective in a city pocket of 
unincorporated San Joaquin County.

County code enforcers issued the collective a notice to comply for 
operating without a business license. The collective also is in 
violation of the county's moratorium on marijuana dispensaries. The 
collective appealed to the Board of Supervisors last year but was denied.

County officials said last month they turned the matter over to the 
District Attorney's Office. A spokesman for the office did not return 
messages seeking a status of that review.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom