WESTMINSTER, Colo. - It's being called the first major legal challenge of Colorado's new medical marijuana law. HB 1284 allows individual municipalities to ban dispensaries, and now a dispensary in Westminster has filed suit, claiming the ban is unconstitutional.
Herbal Remedies generated about $100,000 dollars in sales tax revenue in Westminster over the last year, but the new law, which took effect August 1st, allows municipalities to enact their own bans on dispensaries. Westminster City Council ordered Herbal Remedies shutdown in November, saying marijuana is illegal under federal law.
"A local municipality cannot outright ban a legal business that has a constitutional protection," said Tae Darnell, Herbal Remedies' Lawyer who filed suit in Adams County Court challenging the ban.
Herbal Remedies' challenge is based in part on a ruling last year in favor of Cannamart Dispensary in Centennial. An Arapahoe County judge ruled Centennial could not shut them down simply because marijuana is against federal law and that patients like Lawrence Rice, who gets his marijuana from Herbal Remedies, have the right to get medicinal marijuana in a manner that is not considered difficult for them.
"It's a safe place to come, it's right here in Westminster, I'm only a few blocks from my home, and I do have that right," said Rice.
"It's unconstitutional to restrict patients from their rights, from their medicine," said Carl Wemhoff, owner of Herbal Remedies.
Also complicating the case, Westminster has filed criminal charges against Herbal Remedies landlord, 84-year-old Gene Lehman and threatened him with a $120,000 fine unless his evicts them.
"That's what I don't like about it. We've always been a good city business," said Lehman.
The case is the first to pit Colorado's new law against what lawyers say are the rights guaranteed by Amendment 20, the vote that legalized medical marijuana in Colorado ten years ago.
Herbal Remedies generated about $100,000 dollars in sales tax revenue in Westminster over the last year, but the new law, which took effect August 1st, allows municipalities to enact their own bans on dispensaries. Westminster City Council ordered Herbal Remedies shutdown in November, saying marijuana is illegal under federal law.
"A local municipality cannot outright ban a legal business that has a constitutional protection," said Tae Darnell, Herbal Remedies' Lawyer who filed suit in Adams County Court challenging the ban.
Herbal Remedies' challenge is based in part on a ruling last year in favor of Cannamart Dispensary in Centennial. An Arapahoe County judge ruled Centennial could not shut them down simply because marijuana is against federal law and that patients like Lawrence Rice, who gets his marijuana from Herbal Remedies, have the right to get medicinal marijuana in a manner that is not considered difficult for them.
"It's a safe place to come, it's right here in Westminster, I'm only a few blocks from my home, and I do have that right," said Rice.
"It's unconstitutional to restrict patients from their rights, from their medicine," said Carl Wemhoff, owner of Herbal Remedies.
Also complicating the case, Westminster has filed criminal charges against Herbal Remedies landlord, 84-year-old Gene Lehman and threatened him with a $120,000 fine unless his evicts them.
"That's what I don't like about it. We've always been a good city business," said Lehman.
The case is the first to pit Colorado's new law against what lawyers say are the rights guaranteed by Amendment 20, the vote that legalized medical marijuana in Colorado ten years ago.
