Pot Advocates Want Judge to Suspend Diamond Bar's Ban on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

A medical marijuana patient advocacy group wants a judge to suspend the city of Diamond Bar's ban on all medical marijuana dispensaries until an adequate environmental study is done.

The Union of Medical Marijuana Patients Inc. filed a petition Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the city, maintaining that the environment will be harmed with more traffic and air pollutants if medical marijuana patients are forced to drive to other cities to get their medication.

The group also maintains some patients would start growing their own marijuana.

A representative for the city could not be immediately reached.

According to the petition, until this year the city allowed one marijuana dispensary in the city based on a 2006 ordinance. City officials erred when they adopted the current dispensary ban and concluded the measure was not a "project" under the California Environmental Quality Act that requires an assessment of its impact on the community, the petition maintains.

"The fact that the project at issue is the adoption of an ordinance as opposed to a development project proposed by an applicant does not relieve the city of an obligation to undertake a review of the project under CEQA," the petition states.

About 1,125 medical marijuana patients live in Diamond Bar, the petition states.