Smoked Out: the Last Medical Marijuana Dispensary in South OC Closes

The last medical marijuana dispensary in South Orange County has closed, according to the Orange County Register.

Jason Bolding, owner of Suite A Laguna Health in Laguna Niguel, told the Laguna Niguel city council at their meeting Tuesday night that he was in the process of emptying out his business, which was at the corner of Niguel Road and Crown Valley Parkway. The closure was part of a settlement Bolding reached with the city prior to the start of a jury trial that was supposed to have started last week.

Bolding and the city had been embroiled in a lawsuit since 2010, something many a dispensary owner has gone through with local municipalities ever since California voters approved the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1996.

Councilwoman Linda Lindholm gave Bolding a lecture, one Bolding has surely heard hundreds of times from dispensary opponents, citing that marijuana is against federal law, that the FDA hasn’t shown any proof that marijuana has any health benefits, and that she considers it a gateway drug to harder drugs.

Bolding told the Register that he may wind up gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that could let him reopen in the city.