Lake Forest Seeks High Court Review of Pot Ruling

Lake Forest will ask the state Supreme Court to review a recent appellate court ruling that , city officials announced Tuesday.

During its closed session talks that regularly precede the public portion of its meeting, the City Council authorized Lake Forest's legal team to request a formal review of the recently-released decision, City Attorney Scott Smith said at the meeting.

On Leap Day, the Fourth Appellate District Court ruled that city officials may use their nuisance ordinance to regulate the dispensaries and collectives, but .

The ruling struck down a preliminary injunction from Orange County Superior Court Judge David Chaffee in May 2010 that would have shut down the Evergreen Holistic Collective, a dispensary operating then among a second-story row of similar businesses on Raymond Way.

However, dispensaries aren't expected to move back into their vacated storefronts, since the ruling specifically noted that stores must cultivate the marijuana dispensed there on site.

None of the pot shops operating in Lake Forest had been selling a product grown at the store, according to city officials.

Requesting a Supreme Court review is the city's latest move in its ongoing legal battle aimed at pushing dispensaries out of Lake Forest for good.