City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health

• Decision Date: 06 May 2013
• Docket Number: No. S198638.,S198638.
• Citation: 300 P.3d 494,156 Cal.Rptr.3d 409,56 Cal.4th 729
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: CITY OF RIVERSIDE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. INLAND EMPIRE PATIENTS HEALTH AND WELLNESS CENTER, INC., et al., Defendants and Appellants.

56 Cal.4th 729

300 P.3d 494

156 Cal.Rptr.3d 409

CITY OF RIVERSIDE, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.INLAND EMPIRE PATIENTS HEALTH AND WELLNESS CENTER, INC., et al., Defendants and Appellants.

No. S198638.

Supreme Court of California

May 6, 2013.

See 2 Witkin & Epstein, Cal. Criminal Law (4th ed. 2012) Crimes Against Public Peace and Welfare, § 136 et seq.

Law Offices of J. David Nick and J. David Nick, San Francisco, for Defendants and Appellants.

Joseph D. Elford, for Americans for Safe Access as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Appellants.

Gregory P. Priamos, City Attorney, James E. Brown and Neil Okazaki, Deputy City Attorneys; Best Best & Krieger, Jeffrey V. Dunn, Irvine, Lee Ann Meyer, Los Angeles, Roderick E. Walston, Walnut Creek, Daniel S. Roberts, Irvine, Laura Dahl; Greines, Martin Stein & Richland, Timothy T. Coates and Gary D. Rowe, Los Angeles, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Carmen A. Trutanich, City Attorney (Los Angeles) and William W. Carter, Chief Deputy City Attorney, for City of Los Angeles as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.

Jones & Mayer, Martin J. Mayer, Krista MacNevin Jee and Elena Q. Gerli, Fullerton, for California State Sheriffs' Association, California Police Chiefs Association and California Peace Officers' Association as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.

Burke, Williams & Sorensen, Thomas B. Brown, Oakland, and Stephen A. McEwen, Santa Ana, for League of California Cities and California State Association of Counties as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.

BAXTER, J.

The issue in this case is whether California's medical marijuana statutes preempt a local ban on facilities that distribute medical marijuana. We conclude they do not.

Both federal and California laws generally prohibit the use, possession, cultivation, transportation, and furnishing of marijuana. However, California statutes, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (CUA; Health & Saf.Code, § 11362.5,¹ added by initiative, Prop. 15, as approved by voters, Gen. Elec. (Nov. 5, 1996)) and the more recent Medical Marijuana Program (MMP; § 11362.7 et seq., added by Stats. 2003, ch. 875, § 2, pp. 6422, 6424), have removed certain state law obstacles from the ability of qualified patients to obtain and use marijuana for legitimate medical purposes. Among other things, these statutes exempt the “collective[ ] or cooperative[ ] cultiva[tion]” of medical marijuana by qualified patients and their designated caregivers from prosecution or abatement under specified state criminal and nuisance laws that would otherwise prohibit those activities. ( § 11362.775.)

The California Constitution recognizes the authority of cities and counties to make and enforce, within their borders, “all local, police, sanitary, and other ordinances and regulations not in conflict with general laws.” (Cal. Const., art. XI, § 7.) This inherent local police power includes broad authority to determine, for purposes of the public health, safety, and welfare, the appropriate uses of land within a local jurisdiction's borders, and preemption by state law is not lightly presumed.

In the exercise of its inherent land use power, the City of Riverside (City) has declared, by zoning ordinances, that a “[m]edical marijuana dispensary”—“[a] facility where marijuana is made available for medical purposes in accordance with” the CUA (Riverside Municipal Code (RMC), § 19.910.140) ²—is a prohibited use of land within the city and may be abated as a public nuisance. (RMC, §§ 1.01.110E, 6.15.020Q, 19.150.020 & table 19.150.020 A.) The City's ordinance also bans, and declares a nuisance, any use that is prohibited by federal or state law. (RMC, §§ 1.01.110E, 6.15.020Q, 9.150.020.)

Invoking these provisions, the City brought a nuisance action against a facility operated by defendants. The trial court issued a preliminary injunction against the distribution of marijuana from the facility. The Court of Appeal affirmed the injunctive order. Challenging the injunction, defendants urge, as they did below, that the City's total ban on facilities that cultivate and distribute medical marijuana in compliance with the CUA and the MMP is invalid. Defendants insist the local ban is in conflict with, and thus preempted by, those state statutes.

As we will explain, we disagree. We have consistently maintained that the CUA and the MMP are but incremental steps toward freer access to medical marijuana, and the scope of these statutes is limited and circumscribed. They merely declare that the conduct they describe cannot lead to arrest or conviction, or be abated as a nuisance, as violations of enumerated provisions of the Health and Safety Code. Nothing in the CUA or the MMP expressly or impliedly limits the inherent authority of a local jurisdiction, by its own ordinances, to regulate the use of its land, including the authority to provide that facilities for the distribution of medical marijuana will not be permitted to operate within its borders. We must therefore reject defendants' preemption argument, and must affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

LEGAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. Medical marijuana laws.

The federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA; 21 U.S.C. § 801 et seq.) prohibits, except for certain research purposes, the possession, distribution, and manufacture of marijuana. ( Id.,§§ 812(c) (Schedule I, par. (c)(10)), 841(a), 844(a).) The CSA finds that marijuana is a drug with “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” ( id.,§ 812(B)(1)(B)), AND THERE IS NO medical necessity exception to prosecution and conviction under the federal act ( United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative (2001) 532 U.S. 483, 490, 121 S.Ct. 1711, 149 L.Ed.2d 722).

California statutes similarly specify that, except as authorized by law, the possession (§ 11357), cultivation, harvesting, or processing (§ 11358), possession for sale (§ 11359), and transportation, administration, or furnishing (§ 11360) of marijuana are state criminal violations. State law further punishes one who maintains a place for the purpose of unlawfully selling, using, or furnishing, or who knowingly makes available a place for storing, manufacturing, or distributing, certain controlled substances. (§§ 11366, 11366.5.) The so-called “drug den” abatement law additionally provides that every place used to unlawfully sell, serve, store, keep, manufacture, or give away certain controlled substances is a nuisance that shall be enjoined, abated, and prevented, and for which damages may be recovered. (§ 11570.) In each instance, the controlled substances in question include marijuana. (See §§ 11007, 11054, subd. (d)(13).)

However, California's voters and legislators have adopted limited exceptions to the sanctions of this state's criminal and nuisance laws in cases where marijuana is possessed, cultivated, distributed, and transported for medical purposes. In 1996, the electorate enacted the CUA. This initiative statute provides that the state law proscriptions against possession and cultivation of marijuana (§§ 11357, 11358) shall not apply to a patient, or the patient's designated primary caregiver, who possesses or cultivates marijuana for the patient's personal medical purposes upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician. (§ 11362.5, subd. (d).)

In 2004, the Legislature adopted the MMP. One purpose of this statute was to “[e]nhance the access of patients and caregivers to medical marijuana through collective, cooperative cultivation projects.” (Stats. 2003, ch. 875, § 1, subd. (b)(3), pp. 6422, 6423.) Accordingly, the MMP provides, among other things, that “[q]ualified patients ... and the designated primary caregivers of qualified patients ..., who associate within the State of California in order collectively or cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes, shall not solely on the basis of that fact be subject to state criminal sanctions under [s]ection 11357 [possession], 11358 [cultivation, harvesting, and processing], 11359 [possession for sale], 11360 [transportation, sale, furnishing, or administration], 11366 [maintenance of place for purpose of unlawful sale, use, or furnishing], 11366.5 [making place available for purpose of unlawful manufacture, storage, or distribution], or 11570 [place used for unlawful sale, serving, storage, manufacture, or furnishing as statutory nuisance].” (§ 11362.775.)

The CUA and the MMP have no effect on the federal enforceability of the CSA in California. The CSA's prohibitions on the possession, distribution, or manufacture of marijuana remain fully enforceable in this jurisdiction. ( Gonzales v. Raich (2005) 545 U.S. 1, 125 S.Ct. 2195, 162 L.Ed.2d 1.)

B. Riverside's ordinances.

As noted above, the Riverside ordinances at issue declare as a “prohibited use” within any city zoning classification (1) a “[m]edical marijuana dispensary”—defined as “[a] facility where marijuana is made available in accordance with” the CUA—and (2) any use prohibited by state or federal law. (RMC, §§ 19.150.020 & table 19.150.020 A, 19.910.140.) The RMC further provides that any condition caused or permitted to exist in violation of the ordinance is a public nuisance which may be abated by the city. ( Id., §§ 1.01.110E, 6.15.020Q.)

C. The instant litigation.

Since 2009, defendant Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center, Inc. (Inland Empire), has operated a medical marijuana distribution facility in Riverside. Defendants Meneleo Carlos and Filomena Carlos (the Carloses) are the owners and lessors of the Riverside property on which Inland Empire's facility is located. Their mortgage on the property is financed by defendant East West Bancorp, Inc. (Bancorp). Defendant Lanny Swerdlow is the lessee of the property, and defendant Angel City West, Inc. (Angel), provides the property with management services. Swerdlow is also a registered nurse and the manager of an immediately...