A Marin County judge Friday declined to quash an eviction order aimed at closing the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana's storefont at 6 School St. in Fairfax.
The Marin Alliance has until Dec. 9 to file an answer to the ruling by Marin Superior Court Judge Roy Chernus and can still request a trial. But Lynnette Shaw, the founder and operator of California's oldest medical marijuana dispensary, said she isn't sure whether she will keep the storefront open in the meantime.
"It's a day-by-day thing right now," Shaw said. "Patients need to sign up for the delivery service."
The Fairfax dispensary is among dozens statewide that federal prosecutors have targeted for closure due to their proximity to parks, schools and other facilities used by children.
Shaw's attorney, Peter Goldstone of Santa Rosa, argued Friday that the eviction proceeding should be thrown out of court because it was based on the assumption that the Marin Alliance has violated its contract with the owner of the building by violating federal law. Goldstone said that assumption has not been tested in any court.
"Who says she is in violation of the law?" Goldstone asked. "The landlord has been coerced into saying she is in violation of federal law."
Goldstone said the government is forcing the landlord, Farshid Ezazi of Orinda, to do its dirty work.
"It is gladiatorial," Goldstone said.
Chernus said that argument could be brought up at a subsequent
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trial but was not applicable at this stage in the legal process.
Ezazi's attorney, Bob Weems of Fairfax, said the federal government has initiated legal action to confiscate the School Street property. Weems said Ezazi has until Dec. 18 to contest the use of drug forfeiture laws to take his property and hopes to resolve the eviction dispute before then.
Melinda Haag, the San Francisco-based U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, sent a letter to Ezazi on Sept. 28 informing him that unless the sale of marijuana was halted at the School Street site within 45 days he could face "criminal prosecution, imprisonment, fines, and forfeiture of assets, including the real property on which the dispensary is operating."
Weems said the federal government initiated its proceeding to confiscate the building on Nov. 18 even though Ezazi had already filed suit to evict the Marin Alliance.
Shaw has said that if she is evicted she would seek to continue doing patient in-take and storing medical records at the School Street site.
"I don't have anywhere else to put 8,000 medical records," she said.
But Weems said that if the Marin Alliance is evicted, Shaw and her staff will have to vacate the property.
Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij.com