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Two top Riverside officials are asking U.S. attorneys to enforce the federal marijuana ban in their city, as the feds have in other Southern California communities during a recent crackdown on medical marijuana operations.
Medical marijuana dispensaries are forbidden by Riverside city zoning. Since 2010, the city has been seeking to close the facilities by filing lawsuits in civil court, and City Attorney Greg Priamos said this week he’s been able to shut down about 30 dispensaries.
Marijuana was legalized for medical use by California voters in 1996, but federal law bans the drug. In October, the state’s four U.S. attorneys began a crackdown they described as targeting commercial distribution of marijuana.
Dispensaries in French Valley and Wildomar have been shut down in recent months, others in the Inland area have received warning letters, and federal officials have filed civil and criminal actions against dispensary operators and property owners who rent to them.
Riverside City Attorney Greg Priamos and police Chief Sergio Diaz want such enforcement in their city. In a letter dated Jan. 26 and made public by Priamos this week, Priamos and Diaz asked U.S. Attorney André Birotte Jr., who has jurisdiction over the Inland area, for assistance “in combating the illegal storefront marijuana distribution in the city of Riverside that openly flouts federal, state and local law.”
The letter details the city’s efforts to ban medical marijuana facilities and shut them down, and it describes the facilities as “for-profit entities that have become targets for criminal activity,” citing three robberies at Riverside dispensaries in 2011. About 15 dispensaries are still operating in Riverside, according to the letter.
Priamos said Thursday he had not received an answer from Birotte’s office. Riverside wants federal authorities to step in because they “have remedies at their disposal that are not available to the city of Riverside,” such as seizing the assets of the dispensary operators and their landlords, Priamos said.
U.S. Attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek said in a phone message that the office does not comment on correspondence.
The recent crackdown on dispensaries “is forcing patients to turn to criminal sources,” said medical marijuana activist Lanny Swerdlow, who founded a Riverside dispensary sued by the city in a case that will next be heard by the state Supreme Court. That case is expected to settle whether cities can use zoning to ban dispensaries.
“I am disappointed that the city of Riverside feels it necessary to involve the federal government in what is essentially a state issue,” Swerdlow said.
In Wildomar, where a dispensary closed in November shortly after becoming the target of a federal asset forfeiture lawsuit, city officials are glad U.S. attorneys became involved. The city has a ban on dispensaries and had filed a cease-and-desist order against the facility, to no avail, Councilwoman Marsha Swanson said.
The city didn’t seek federal help, she said.
“We appreciated it. It made a difference,” she added.
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