A Haverhill businesswoman looking to open a recreational marijuana store has filed a lawsuit against two businessmen who have sued the city in an attempt to block her store from opening.

According to The Eagle-Tribune, three owners of two businesses near the proposed shop’s 124 Washington St. address recently sued the city alleging that zoning for pot shops breaches the rights of neighboring property owners.

As the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed in Essex County Superior Court, Caroline Pineau argues that Bradford Brooks and Lloyd Jennings “have engaged in a pattern and practice of threatening, extorting, intimidating and/or suing a business neighbor for their own financial gain,” the newspaper reports.

The Eagle-Tribune reports that Pineau, also operating under the company name Haverhill Stem LLC, said in the lawsuit that the men demanded $30,000 from her.

The debt could be traced to a previous dispute between Brooks and Jennings and the Victor Emmanuel Lodge of the Sons of Italy, the previous business located at 124 Washington St., the paper said.

A copy of the lawsuit obtained by the newspaper demands that Brooks and Jennings stop intimidating Pineau and for damages related to the conflict.

The original lawsuit, first intended to be heard in state land court, has now been moved to U.S. District Court because it involves federal issues, the newspaper reports.

Though legal for adult-use in Massachusetts, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. Possession, cultivation and distribution of cannabis remains illegal under federal law.

Many marijuana businesses in Massachusetts have received legal backlash from their respective communities.

Earlier this year, neighbors of a Cambridge medical marijuana dispensary sued the business in U.S. District Court alleging that the store, Healthy Pharms, broke the anti-racketeering RICO statute as they were involved in federal marijuana crimes. The neighbors argued the business hurt their property values.

Though the case was settled out of court, the lawsuit could have shattered the budding Massachusetts marijuana industry. If a judge sided with the neighbors, that decision could have made the state reexamine existing marijuana laws.

Cases like this are not unique to Massachusetts, RICO lawsuits against marijuana businesses have been decided and are pending across the country.

In late 2018, a jury ruled in favor of a Colorado cannabis cultivation facility embroiled in a similar federal racketeering lawsuit, according to The Colorado Sun.

The Cambridge neighbors also brought a zoning appeal to state court, however they eventually agreed to dismiss the case.