Weatherford seeking help in pot battle

After meeting in special session behind closed doors for approximately an hour Monday night, the Weatherford City Commission voted unanimously for Mayor Mike Brown to hire outside legal counsel to defend the city in a civil suit brought by proponents of medical marijuana.
There was no open discussion prior to or after the vote. Commissioner Rick Miller made the motion. Other members of the commission, all present and voting for it, were Jimmy Ingram, Warren Goldmann, Garrett Smith and Mayor Brown.
City Attorney David Duncan sat in on the closed session as well.
The suit against the city was filed Oct. 17 in Custer County District Court at Arapaho. Plaintiffs are Weatherford residents Michael Vargas, Alicia Vargas, and three businesses in which they are involved: Next Level Medicine, LLC; Med Shed Inc.; and Alice’s Restaurant Dispensary, LLC. They’re all based in Weatherford, too.
Basically, the suit alleges that the city did not have authority to pass an ordinance regulating medical marijuana growth, sales or use – that regulation of those functions is reserved for the Oklahoma Department of Health and it alone. Of course, the Clinton City Council passed a similar ordinance, though not nearly as detailed as the one in Weatherford, for this city.
Lisa Anders, Clinton’s city clerk, said Tuesday she has not heard of any suit being filed against her city.
Although failing in Custer County, medical marijuana was legalized throughout Oklahoma by vote of the people on June 26.
The Weatherford suit states that the act establishing medical marijuana as legal in Oklahoma does not authorize any municipality to take acts restricting its disposition.
For instance, it says that Oklahoma Statute 63, paragraph 425A (F), specifically states that: “No city or local municipality may unduly change or restrict zoning laws to prevent the opening of a retail marijuana establishment.”
It says the only language in the law about cities and municipalities “specifically restricts, rather than authorizes,” cities from imposing additional regulations.
It also claims that the Oklahoma Legislature meeting in special session is the only entity authorized to “correct, revise, and extend the protections offered by the Act,” and that to date the Legislature has failed to act and the governor has not called a special session for that purpose.
“Despite the Governor’s and Legislature’s failures to act . . . such failures do not authorize cities like Weatherford to enact restrictions or impose fees on the activities authorized under the Act through the alleged application of municipal police powers,” the suit states.
Weatherford’s ordinance was adopted Sept. 27 by the City Commission. Among other things, it:
• Limits hours of operation for medical marijuana dispensaries to 8 a.m. through 8 p.m.;
• Prohibits a dispensary from being located on Main Street between State Highway 54 and Airport Road (that would be all the way through downtown and out east past the airport);
• Prohibits a dispensary from being located within set distances from libraries, museums, child care centers “and other alternative businesses”;
• Restricts signs and advertising which the suit says “makes it impossible for medical marijuana dispensaries to advertise their businesses”;
• Bans, in any form, medical marijuana growing and processing establishments from the City of Weatherford.
The suit, which demands a jury trial, was filed by Ronald E. Durbin II of the Durbin Law Firm in Tulsa. The same company had previously filed suits against the cities of Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Yukon and Sulphur regarding their medical marijuana regulations. It also has filed suits against the State Health Department, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, and the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
Weatherford’s ordinance, the one the suit claims it had no authority to enact, prohibits both medical marijuana cultivation and processing facilities within the city limits.