Long Beach’s former city clerk made the right call when he decided that a pro-medical marijuana measure had not qualified for the April 2014 ballot, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals ruled Monday.

The court’s ruling did not address the merits of medical marijuana policy in Long Beach, where cannabis dispensaries have been generally forbidden since 2012. The City Council’s recent decision to kill a proposed medical marijuana ordinance has created a situation where a future ballot measure at the state or local level may determine whether storefront dispensaries or delivery services will ever be legal in city limits, and there is at least one group of medical marijuana supporters currently working to place a measure on the November ballot.

“Long Beach is a very progressive city, and it’s not going to be difficult collecting the signatures,” said Jason Aula, a consultant to a local ballot measure campaign.

The court ruling

Ninth circuit judges limited their review to the question of whether former City Clerk Larry Herrera-Cabrera should have qualified a pro-dispensary measure for a general election ballot after proponents failed to collect enough signatures to qualify for a special election.

Judges affirmed Herrera’s choice, as well as a December 2014 U.S. District Court ruling. They determined California’s election laws do not require elections officials to consider whether a proposed ballot initiative is qualified for a regularly-scheduled election whenever proponents seeking to place a measure on a special election ballot.

Attorney Gautam Dutta, who represented plaintiffs Jeremy Coltharp and Edith Frazier against the city, said he is reviewing his clients’ options and also issued a statement expressing his disagreement with the court.

“Simply put, the voters have the right to decide whether to tax and regulate medical marijuana. Because the City Clerk illegally blocked our measure from qualifying for the ballot, Long Beach residents have been unjustly deprived of their right to vote on a critical issue,” Dutta wrote in an email.

A new local initiative

Dutta said his clients are not involved in a new push to qualify a medical marijuana initiative for a future election.

The Long Beach Patients Access PAC is supporting a measure that Aula said would allow an unlimited number of dispensaries to operate in Long Beach and would not require permits for residential cultivation.

Proponents are seeking permission from Long Beach officials to begin collecting signatures in early March.

Long Beach’s City Council voted in early February to cease consideration of an ordinance that would have allowed delivery services to provide medical marijuana to patients as early as January 2017, with the possibility of retail dispensaries being allowed as early as October of that year.