# Medical marijuana dispensary back in business in Cathedral City



## FruityBud (Mar 7, 2008)

Essential Herbs and Oils re-opened its doors for business Thursday, but how long the medical marijuana dispensary on East Palm Canyon Drive will remain open is anybody's guess.

Although Cathedral City officials were unsuccessful in their attempts to get a federal injunction against the dispensary earlier this week, they are continuing their efforts to revoke the shop's business license.

The dispensary has also received a notice of eviction.

Efforts to contact the dispensary's landlord were unsuccessful Thursday, but Anthony Curiale, attorney for the dispensary, confirmed that the business had received an eviction notice and would oppose it.

The shop also will oppose the city's efforts to revoke its license, Curiale said. A date for a hearing on the matter has yet to be set.

In the midst of this slippery legal landscape, Virginia and Adam Hurn, the Cathedral City couple behind Essential Herbs, are calmly determined to stay open. They have between 400 and 600 patients, Adam Hurn said, and they want to work with the city, not fight it.

"We plan on donating to the police department and the fire department," said Adam Hurn, sitting in the dispensary's freshly painted waiting room on Thursday. "We've asked for a meeting with the City Council and their attorney."

Mayor Kathy DeRosa declined to comment on the city's actions against the dispensary.

Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City are the last two cities in the Coachella Valley that have not passed a moratorium or ban on dispensaries. The Indio City Council approved a ban on Wednesday.

Francis Podrebarac, a Cathedral City resident and patient at the dispensary, said he wants the city to back off.

"The issue is about disability," said Podrebarac, himself a doctor who uses marijuana to relieve pain from cancer and AIDS-related conditions.

"I'm unable to take opiate medications because of side effects," he said. "I think it's reasonable to ask for safe medicine that's grown in California, that's not hauled across border from Mexico."

Under California law, which allows medical use of marijuana for patients with a doctor's letter of recommendation, Podrebac's actions are legal.

But use or sale of the drug is illegal under U.S. law, which was the basis of Cathedral City's failed request for a federal injunction.

Judge Stephen G. Larson of the U.S. District Court in Riverside ruled on Monday that the city cannot use federal law to close the business.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles has declined comment on whether it will pursue a case against the dispensary, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the office.

The city's cost for the federal litigation has also become an issue, with Councilman Paul Marchand, an attorney, estimating lawyers' fees of more than $10,000.

"I'm very concerned about taxpayers' bottom line," Marchand said. "We need to be much more careful than we have been about taking on legal challenges because there are all kinds of consequences, intended and unintended, that flow from this. We're spending money that for us is very scarce."

The city attorney's fees for the case are not yet available, said Deputy City Manager Julie Baumer. "The normal billing process for the city attorney is monthly," she said. "When we get the bills in for March, then we'll release them."

Baumer said no complaints about the business have been voiced to the city. Other small businesses in the same complex as the dispensary are mostly neutral on the issue.

Charles Elmais, owner of Best Dental Laboratories located above Essential Herbs, said he was not even aware of it until a few people wandered into his office looking for the dispensary.

Sasha Diaz, a tax preparer at Desert Mortgage, said the dispensary has caused no problems, but she would still like it to close.

"I don't like it," Diaz said. "It brings bad people around."

But the Hurns said they want Essential Herbs to help promote business in the area. The shop will pay sales tax, Adam Hurn said, and draw consumers to the area.

"If (people) come to my shop, they'll say, 'Let's grab a pizza; let's grab a soda pop,'" he said. "If everyone who came here spent $5 on gas in Cathedral City, we'd come up real good."

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