Pubdate: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 Source: Orange County Register, The (CA) Copyright: 2015 The Orange County Register Contact: http://www.ocregister.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOT MUCH ON LEGAL POT IN COSTA MESA The political process is a remarkable thing to watch, if only to marvel at how many things can happen without anything happening at all. Costa Mesa's medical marijuana discussion has played out as quite the drama: We've enjoyed hours of public comment, study sessions, staff analysis and more; witnessed the revival, revision and repose of city-led legislation and, after it all, wound up with little to show in terms of progress. And to top it off, the city last week was sued - twice, in fact. Lawyers behind the two suits Fullerton's Randall T. Longwith for one and the Los Angeles team of David Welch and Benjamin McFadden on the other - are veterans, each having pushed prior legal challenges to restrictive policies on marijuana. Both challenges were filed in Orange County Superior Court and seek recognition of state law requiring certified citizen-backed initiatives to go to a special ballot within 88-103 days. The city initially decided against this because of Proposition 218 concerns, which requires all general tax proposals - marijuana sales taxes, in this case - go to a general election ballot. The petitioners sought two things: First, an injunction stopping the city from placing the measures on the general ballot; second, to mandate a special election. A judge denied both requests until an April hearing, meaning the drama will have yet more time to play out. The shame in all of this is the investment - the stress, the time, the money and more - put into a system that has every appearance of incentivizing sloth. Rather than prudence and deliberation, it appears more a sort of elevated handwringing. As measures are pursued on the local, state and federal levels, we hope all parties might be more deliberate in their protection and pursuit of liberty. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom