A Fresno County Superior Court judge issued a tentative ruling Wednesday to shut down nine medical marijuana dispensaries that have opened in Fresno this year.
Lawyers for several of the businesses said they will fight the ruling in a hearing this afternoon. But Assistant City Attorney Doug Sloan was confident the decision would stand.
"Anyone opposing the ruling would have to change the judge's mind," Sloan said.
In a series of court actions starting in mid-August, city officials sought to close the dispensaries for violating a zoning ordinance requiring them to comply with both a state law that allows them and a federal law that does not.
Judge Alan M. Simpson's proposed order cites two recent California appellate decisions -- one from a Claremont case and the other from Corona -- that dealt with whether cities can ask courts to shut down dispensaries for zoning violations. Both times, courts sided with the cities.
A marijuana product at the Sierra Natural Healing Collective is shown in a recent photo. A judge's tentative ruling Wednesday may close this and other Fresno medical marijuana dispensaries.
Nevertheless, lawyers for the dispensaries said they will continue to argue their case today -- and in future hearings on whether to make the shutdowns permanent.
"Ultimately, this will not stand," said Kenneth Clark, who represents Sierra Natural Healing Collective in the Highway City area.
William McPike, an Auberry lawyer who represents dispensaries and also owns one -- California Naturopathic Agricultural Association north of downtown Fresno -- predicted the dispensaries will not make any headway with the judge today.
"I seriously doubt he's going to change his mind," McPike said.
"He's just flipping a hot potato to the appellate court."
The tentative ruling issues a temporary restraining order and sets an Oct. 22 hearing on a preliminary injunction.
It applies only to owners and operators of the dispensaries, not their landlords, who were also named in the city's actions.
Simpson's ruling said the city had not shown that "the landlords knew or should have known of the zoning violations," or that the city had formally asked them to take action against the dispensaries.
But the ruling also rejected a key defense claim -- that because state laws permit medical marijuana use, local governments can't use their zoning ordinances or other methods to ban them.
"Absent a clear indication of legislative intent to preempt local zoning, this court must presume that state law does not preempt the city of Fresno's zoning ordinance," the tentative ruling said.
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