Politics & Government

Judge Rules Against Pot Testing Lab

Golden State Collective has to file its appeal with the city over its denial of a business license before it can ask the courts to intervene, a judge says.

A medical marijuana-testing lab won't be protected from penalties if it operates in Santa Monica without a business license from the city, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.

Judge Lisa Hart Cole said Golden State Collective's owner, Richard McDonald, has to follow the city's appeals process before she can intervene.

He wanted to re-open the lab despite not having a license—a misdemeanor punishable by fines and possibly arrest—or force the city to issue one.

Find out what's happening in Santa Monicawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

McDonald's application for a business license was filed in December 2011 and denied three months later on March 21 when he didn't submit proof that he was operating with OKs from either the state or federal government, according to Deputy City Attorney Anthony P. Serritella.

McDonald signed a lease at 3110 Pennsylvania Ave. anyway and has since fired two technicians.

Find out what's happening in Santa Monicawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

An injunction to operate temporarily without a license would have protected McDonald "from being arrested by the Santa Monica Police Department, it would cause nobody any concern or harm," his attorney Roger Jon Diamond argued Tuesday.

Diamond said getting approvals to test drugs from either the state or federal government would be impossible.

The state doesn't issue such certifications, he said, and while the federal government does, the Drug Enforcement Administration won't issue them if McDonald can't prove that he's obtaining the medicinal marijuana from a legal source. In the eyes of the federal government, all marijuana is illegal.

Plus, the DEA also requires proof of a business license, Diamond said.

"It's a bureaucratic tail chaise," he told Hart.

Diamond also contends that McDonald can’t afford to wait 60 days to complete the city's appeal process. He said after the hearing that he is filing a claim on McDonald’s behalf against the city for more than $25,000 in damages.

But Diamond's points were moot, Hart said. State law requires that to rule on an injunction such as the one sought by McDonald, he first had to show that he exhausted all "administrative remedies."

McDonald's request for an appeal to the city was only just filed Friday. It will be heard by an independent hearing officer.

After Tuesday's court hearing in Santa Monica, Diamond said he would file a claim against the city for more than $25,000.


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