Source: http://chrisconrad.com/2016/01/live-oak-localities-can-ban-personal-medical-marijuana-gardens/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 17:15:37+00:00

Document:
James MARAL et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. CITY OF LIVE OAK, Defendant and Respondent.
John J. Fuery, Oakland, for Plaintiffs and Appellants. Rich, Fuidge, Morris & Lane, Inc., Brant J. Bordsen, Marysville, and Landon T. Little, for Defendant and Respondent.In December 2011, the City of Live Oak (the City) passed an ordinance prohibiting the cultivation of marijuana for any purpose within the City. Plaintiffs sued, contending the ordinance violated the Compassionate Use Act (CUA) (Health & Saf. Code,1 § 11362.5), the Medical Marijuana Program (MMP) (§ 11362.7 et seq.), equal protection, and due process. The trial court sustained the City’s demurrer and dismissed the complaint. Plaintiffs appeal.
Plaintiffs argue that the CUA and the MMP grant them the right to cultivate medical marijuana. As our Supreme Court recently held in City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center, Inc. (2013) 56 Cal.4th 729 at page 753, 156 Cal.Rptr.3d 409, 300 P.3d 494 (Inland Empire ), the objectives of the CUA and MMP were “modest,” and those acts did not create a “broad right” to access medical marijuana. Inland Empire held that the CUA and the MMP do not preempt the authority of cities and counties to regulate, even prohibit, facilities that distribute medical marijuana. (Id. at p. 762, 156 Cal.Rptr.3d 409, 300 P.3d 494.) The reasoning of Inland Empire applies to the cultivation of medical marijuana as well as its distribution, as both are addressed in the CUA and MMP. Accordingly, we conclude the CUA and MMP do not preempt a city’s police power to prohibit the cultivation of all marijuana within that city. We shall affirm.
On December 21, 2011, by a vote of 5–0, the City Council of the City adopted Ordinance 538 (Ordinance) regarding the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana within the city limits. The Ordinance added a new Chapter 17.17 to the Live Oak Municipal Code (LOMC).
Any cultivation of marijuana in violation of Section 17.17.040 was declared unlawful and a public nuisance. (LOMC, § 17.17.100.) The Ordinance became effective 30 days after its adoption.
Plaintiffs, James Maral, individually and as trustee of the Live Oak Patients, Caregivers and Supporters Association, and other individuals, brought suit to enjoin enforcement of the Ordinance.
The relevant complaint on appeal is the second amended complaint. It alleged that the CUA gave seriously ill Californians the right to obtain and use marijuana for medicinal purposes. The first cause of action alleged the Ordinance violated the CUA by proscribing “activity that is not only legal, but that is a constitutionally-protected right in California.” The second cause of action alleged the Ordinance violated the MMP by proscribing “activity that has been preempted by State law.” The third cause of action alleged a violation of equal protection because the Ordinance deprived plaintiffs of the right to cultivate and use medical marijuana, without a rational basis. The fourth cause of action alleged a violation of due process because the Ordinance deprived plaintiffs of the constitutionally-protected right to cultivate and use medical marijuana. The second amended complaint sought a declaration that the Ordinance was invalid, a preliminary and permanent injunction, and attorney fees and costs.
The City demurred to this complaint on the grounds that it failed to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The City argued there was no constitutional right to cultivate marijuana and the Ordinance had a rational basis.
The trial court sustained the City’s demurrer without leave to amend. The court entered an order dismissing the second amended complaint.
The high court noted that its earlier decisions had “stressed the narrow reach of these statutes.” (Inland Empire, supra, 56 Cal.4th at p. 745, 156 Cal.Rptr.3d 409, 300 P.3d 494.) In Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications, Inc. (2008) 42 Cal.4th 920, 70 Cal.Rptr.3d 382, 174 P.3d 200, the court found the modest and narrow immunity provisions of the CUA did not require an employer to accommodate an employee’s use of medical marijuana. “[T]he only ‘right’ to obtain and use marijuana created by the [CUA] is the right of ‘a patient, or ․ a patient’s primary caregiver, [to] possess[ ] or cultivate [ ] marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician’ without thereby becoming subject to punishment under sections 11357 and 11358 of the Health and Safety Code.” (Id. at p. 929, 70 Cal.Rptr.3d 382, 174 P.3d 200.) In Mentch, supra, 45 Cal.4th 274, 85 Cal.Rptr.3d 480, 195 P.3d 1061, the court declined to expand the statutory definition of a “primary caregiver” to provide immunity to one whose caregiving consisted principally of supplying marijuana and instructing on its use, and who otherwise only sporadically took some patients to medical appointments.
Plaintiffs contend the Ordinance is “an impermissible amendment of the CUA.” As we explained in Browne, supra, 213 Cal.App.4th at page 717, 153 Cal.Rptr.3d 62, only the Legislature can amend a statute, so the proper analysis is whether the Ordinance is preempted by state law. Plaintiffs assert that no other municipality has banned cultivation of medical marijuana; they suggest the City could have (and should have) adopted less stringent regulation. But the choices other cities may have made with respect to medical marijuana are irrelevant to our analysis of preemption in this particular case.
Here, plaintiffs contend the Ordinance conflicts with the CUA (and thus is preempted by it), because the CUA created a right to obtain and use medical marijuana. They rely on the first section of the CUA, that the CUA is intended to “ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where that medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician ․” (§ 11362.5, subd. (b)(1)(A), italics added.) As we have explained, our Supreme Court soundly rejected this argument in Inland Empire.
In several undeveloped arguments, plaintiffs assert various contentions without analysis or citation to authority. First, they claim “[m]edical marijuana patients, by nature of the fact they are medical patients, have a limitation on a major life activity and are disabled by California’s liberal standard. [¶] Consequently, the Plaintiff’s Second Amended Complaint does state a full claim for an Equal Protection Violation.” Second, they claim the actions of the City Council and other City employees in enacting the Ordinance “were fraught with irregularities that arguably violated the Brown Act, fundamental fairness, the right of citizens to be heard in a public forum.” Plaintiffs cite various irregularities in public meetings, such as limiting public participation in meetings to those who supported the Ordinance. They assert that because of those irregularities, the second amended complaint stated a cause of action for violation of due process. Third, plaintiffs contend that the City is “unnecessarily negatively impacting long-cherished property rights” by prohibiting the cultivation of medical marijuana in one’s home. They argue, “Qualified medical marijuana patients should have the right to use their homes as they see desire [sic ], as long as this use does not infringe on the property rights of their neighbors.” However, “[a]n appellate court is not required to examine undeveloped claims, nor to make arguments for parties. [Citation.]” (Paterno v. State of California (1999) 74 Cal.App.4th 68, 106, 87 Cal.Rptr.2d 754.) Our role is to evaluate “legal argument with citation of authorities on the points made.” (People v. Stanley (1995) 10 Cal.4th 764, 793, 42 Cal.Rptr.2d 543, 897 P.2d 481.) Because plaintiffs have failed to make proper arguments on these points, we decline to address them.
1. Further undesignated statutory references are to the Health and Safety Code.
2. The City requests that we take judicial notice of the following facts: Sutter County is comprised of approximately 600 square miles, the majority of which is primarily agricultural land; and the Sutter County Ordinance Code has no prohibitions and restrictions on the cultivation of medical marijuana. Because we find this information unnecessary to resolve the issues on appeal, we deny the request.
We concur:MAURO, Acting P.J.HOCH, J.

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