“A Teachable Moment”

Dispensaries survive a local police crackdown in Vallejo, with lessons for the entire state

Dispensaries hoping to fight local police sweeps might want to look to Vallejo, where dispensaries and their attorneys have successfully fended off charges stemming from a major sweep in February 2012.

According to several Northern California attorneys who specialize in MMJ cases, law enforcement in the bankrupt town has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars raiding and prosecuting Vallejo clubs only to see each and every case get dismissed this spring.

“Attempts to stymie Vallejo medical marijuana have failed,” attorney Omar Figueroa tells CULTURE. “Apparently there are more dispensaries now than before.”

The Vallejo rout bodes well for dispensaries in other battleground cities, too, attorneys say, because any collective can use the defenses raised in Vallejo. The story illustrates how cops have lost a powerful tool to harass lawful dispensaries, and it comes down to a single major court decision.

Back in 1996, Californians approved medical defenses against cannabis crimes like growing and possession. Those protections expanded from patients and caregivers to collectives in 2003. But anti-MMJ cities dug in their heels, sometimes arguing that cancer patients must grow some pot to be lawful members of a collective. This “make ’em grow it” theory led to the 2012 conviction of San Diego dispensary operator Jovan Jackson.

Jackson and patient lobbying group Americans for Safe Access appealed, arguing patients needn’t plant cannabis to be lawful collective members; indeed, the whole point of a collective is such that some can grow for all.

A California Appellate Court agreed on Oct. 24, finding that “the collective or cooperative association required by [state law] need not include active participation by all members in the cultivation process but may be limited to financial support by way of marijuana purchases from the organization.”

The Appellate Court overturned Jackson’s conviction, so San Diego appealed to the Supreme Court with support from the District Attorney’s offices of Sonoma, Sacramento and Los Angeles, and The League of California Cities.

On Jan. 16, the California Supreme Court declined to review or “depublish” the Fourth District Court of Appeals ruling in People v. Jackson. In other words, patients don’t have to grow to be lawful members of collective. They can pay cash for it.

That decision stymied Vallejo law enforcement’s plans. Back in February 2012, the Vallejo Police Department raided at least six dispensaries—sometimes repeatedly—and charged their operators with cannabis sales, arguing some patients were not growing, hence the entire club was illegal.

Over the winter, defense attorneys used the fresh People v. Jackson decision as a shield, and it has worked. Better Health Collective and Life Advanced Services beat the rap. Red Dog Green’s charges were dropped in February, according to lawyer Joe Rogoway. Greenwell dispensary’s case was dismissed before the preliminary hearing in March, says Figueroa. Vallejo dispensary operator Matthew Shotwell, star of Discovery Channel’s Weed Country, also got off.

“Given the facts of this case . . . the people feel they cannot prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Deputy District Attorney Jack Harris [reportedly] told Solano County Superior Court Judge Allan Carter on March 21.

Vallejo PD’s sweep was a total rout, says Paul Armentano, a Vallejo resident and national spokesperson for NORML. “Cases have now been dismissed in every dispensary raid brought by VPD in their 2012 sweep. That concludes our game. Thanks for playing.”

The rout is also a teachable moment for all California law enforcement, Rogoway says. “I think it’s because of . . . People v. Jackson. [Vallejo prosecutors] just couldn’t prove [dispensaries had committed] any crime.”

Waste of Resources

“The lesson for other jurisdictions is that we should stop wasting our resources on prosecuting lawful medical cannabis cases,” attorney Joe Rogoway says. “The term ‘medical cannabis prosecution’ should be an oxymoron at this point.”