Pubdate: Sat, 05 Dec 2015 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2015 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.utsandiego.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386 Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area. SENDING A MESSAGE TO ROGUE POT SHOPS Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor's ruling socking SoCal Holistic Health Inc. and company President Ryan Murphy with a $1.835 million penalty for illegally operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Pacific Beach should send a clear message that San Diego's Wild West days - in which hundreds of medical pot shops sprang up around the city - are over. The ruling came nearly a year after the office of City Attorney Jan Goldsmith first targeted SoCal Holistic Health. Despite being ordered to close in February, the dispensary remained open. The fine is by far the largest assessed against anyone involved in the local medical marijuana industry. Advocates for the industry say that rogue operations should be condoned because of the city's slowness to establish rules for medical pot. But that argument no longer holds. The City Council last year set up a framework under which up to 36 medical marijuana dispensaries could operate in industrial and commercial zones, and city officials have been processing applications for lawful shops ever since. Goldsmith's reaction to Taylor's ruling is spot-on: "Every business has to comply with zoning laws. You can't open a dog kennel or a dry cleaner anywhere you like, and neither can you open a marijuana dispensary in neighborhoods where city zoning laws forbid them." The city attorney says he will continue to aggressively target rogue pot shop owners who don't accept this reality. Good. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom