Blind Medical Pot Patient’s Case Against City Fast-Tracked

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Photo: Miguel Vasconcellos/The Orange County Register
Shelly White feeds her daughter, Malinda Traudt, peanut butter balls after Malinda started showing signs of being in pain. White is afraid officials at the city of Dana Point will close a local dispensary where she gets medical marijuana to treat her daughter’s severe osteoporosis pain and cerebral palsy.

​A September trial date has been set for a lawsuit brought by a blind woman with cerebral palsy and epilepsy who is trying to stop the city of Dana Point, California from shutting down a collective that supplies her with medical marijuana.

A Superior Court judge on Monday scheduled a trial date of September 20 for San Clemente resident Malinda Traudt, 29, according to The Associated Press.
Traudt’s attorney, Jeffrey Schwartz, argued that her lawsuit, filed last week, should be put on a “fast track” because Traudt has “serious, life-threatening health problems” and may not live long enough for it to go through the normal legal process, reports Vik Jolly at The Orange County Register.

For about six months now, Traudt’s family has relied on marijuana to improve her quality of life. Prescription medications she took for months before that offered her little relief from the pain of osteoporosis, her family and attorney say.
Using medical marijuana bought from the Beach Cities Collective has brought her dramatic relief, her family said.
“Although numerous lawsuits have been filed by dispensaries, Malinda’s is the first by a patient alleging that the (city’s) ban unconstitutionally interferes with her fundamental rights to life and safety, under the California Constitution,” Schwartz said.
Traudt’s mother pushes her wheelchair to the collective to buy her “life-saving medicine,” according to Schwartz.
Dana Point filed a lawsuit in March seeking to close down six medical marijuana dispensaries in town. The city claimed the collectives are operating illegally because the establishments are not permitted under the city’s municipal code.
If the dispensary where Traudt buys marijuana is closed, she will not be able to get the medicine she needs anywhere in Orange County, according to her attorney.
“Malinda’s health continues to deteriorate,” her physician, Dr. Beverly Hendrickson, said in a May 18 letter that accompanied the motion to fast-track the trial. “As a result of her multiple conditions, I cannot say with medical certainty that she will survive more than six months.”
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