LOS ANGELES -- A woman who owns a business that claims to be California's largest landlord of marijuana businesses sued the city of San Bernardino to overturn its pot regulation ordinance that could bar her from the industry. CBS Los Angeles reports that Stephanie Smith, who describes herself as a real estate developer by way of Boston College and UCLA, was accused of running a weed "fortress" from three San Bernardino buildings. 
 
 In January, she said she was just the owner of the properties, insisting her tenants' activities were legal under California law. 
 
 Smith, the owner of a business called Bubba Likes Tortillas, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in San Bernardino County Superior Court that the city's new law could create monopolies and also prevent her from renting property to pot growers and other marijuana operations. 
 
 The dispute dates back to December when a fortified building Smith owns was raided, cultivation operations her clients were operating were shut down and 35,000 marijuana plants were seized. Smith was not involved with pot growing and she was not arrested or charged, her attorney Ben Eilenberg said. 
 
 After the raids, a judge invalidated a voter-approved measure to regulate marijuana operations and San Bernardino City Council passed its own measure to replace it earlier this month. 
 
 At the time, CBS Los Angeles reported her attorney released a statement which read, in part: "As a professional real estate developer with several million square feet of commercial and industrial space throughout California, I provide the infrastructure for all types of industry to operate and prosper, including the cannabis industry. I am a well-known and recognized leader in large-scale cannabis real estate development and I am proud of the State of California's position on cannabis." 
 
 Stephanie Smith, 43, and a pot farm that she allegedly operated. San Bernardino Police Dept./CBS News 
 
 The new rules said anyone - from a permit applicant or an employee of a cannabis business to the owner of a property - could be barred from the commercial cannabis business in the city if they had violated local or state laws related to the industry or if they had failed to report income from it. 
 
 Smith is concerned that could apply to tenants - or even her company - because the businesses raided in December were in the process of being licensed, Eilenberg said. They received approval letters to operate a week after they were shut down, but the law appears to make them ineligible to get licenses. 
 
 "This misguided ordinance is a backdoor ban that continues the city's illogical campaign against a legal product," Smith said in a statement. "Any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market under this ordinance. It is not what the voters want and it makes no sense." 
 
 Eilenberg said it could also apply to businesses that operated in the murky days when medical marijuana was loosely regulated. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have given priority to license businesses that operated under medical marijuana regulations to get into the broader retail market that opened Jan. 1. 
 
 "San Bernardino is taking the opposite tack and guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market," Eilenberg said. 
 
 The lawsuit said the ordinance would violate the constitutional right to due process by disqualifying tenants or Smith without ever granting them an administrative or criminal hearing. 
 
 The lawsuit also claimed the city law could create monopolies of certain types of marijuana operating licenses. 
 
 The ordinance would allow 17 commercial marijuana businesses in the city, but there are 19 different types of licenses that could be issued - everything from growing pot, to transporting it, testing it and selling it. 
 
 A city spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the case. ||||| FILE - This Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017, file photo provided by the San Bernardino Police Department shows a shut down marijuana operation of some 35,000 plants they believe was bringing in millions of dollars... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017, file photo provided by the San Bernardino Police Department shows a shut down marijuana operation of some 35,000 plants they believe was bringing in millions of dollars a month in San Bernardino, Calif. The woman who owns the operation who claims to be California's... (Associated Press) 
 
 LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who owns a business that claims to be California's largest landlord of marijuana businesses sued the city of San Bernardino to overturn its pot regulation ordinance that could bar her from the industry. 
 
 Stephanie Smith, the owner of a business called Bubba Likes Tortillas, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in San Bernardino County Superior Court that the city's new law could create monopolies and also prevent her from renting property to pot growers and other marijuana operations. 
 
 The dispute dates back to December when a fortified building Smith owns was raided, cultivation operations her clients were operating were shut down and 35,000 marijuana plants were seized. Smith was not involved with pot growing and she was not arrested or charged, her attorney Ben Eilenberg said. 
 
 After the raids, a judge invalidated a voter-approved measure to regulate marijuana operations and San Bernardino City Council passed its own measure to replace it earlier this month. 
 
 The new rules said anyone — from a permit applicant or an employee of a cannabis business to the owner of a property — could be barred from the commercial cannabis business in the city if they had violated local or state laws related to the industry or if they had failed to report income from it. 
 
 Smith is concerned that could apply to tenants — or even her company — because the businesses raided in December were in the process of being licensed, Eilenberg said. They received approval letters to operate a week after they were shut down, but the law appears to make them ineligible to get licenses. 
 
 "This misguided ordinance is a backdoor ban that continues the city's illogical campaign against a legal product," Smith said in a statement. "Any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market under this ordinance. It is not what the voters want and it makes no sense." 
 
 Eilenberg said it could also apply to businesses that operated in the murky days when medical marijuana was loosely regulated. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have given priority to license businesses that operated under medical marijuana regulations to get into the broader retail market that opened Jan. 1. 
 
 "San Bernardino is taking the opposite tack and guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market," Eilenberg said. 
 
 The lawsuit said the ordinance would violate the constitutional right to due process by disqualifying tenants or Smith without ever granting them an administrative or criminal hearing. 
 
 The lawsuit also claimed the city law could create monopolies of certain types of marijuana operating licenses. 
 
 The ordinance would allow 17 commercial marijuana businesses in the city, but there are 19 different types of licenses that could be issued — everything from growing pot, to transporting it, testing it and selling it. 
 
 A city spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the case. ||||| The cannabis company owned by a Pacific Palisades woman whose marijuana growing operation was uprooted by San Bernardino police late last year is suing the city to overturn a new ordinance addressing commercial cannabis businesses. 
 
 The suit – filed Friday by Bubba Likes Tortillas, which owns a lot of property used for cannabis businesses – says the ordinance violates Prop. 64 and other California laws. The San Bernardino City Council unanimously approved the ordinance March 7. 
 
 Stephanie Smith, owner of Bubba Likes Tortillas, claims the ordinance creates a monopoly for certain cannabis license types and bans “any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis … from entering the legal market.” 
 
 City Attorney Gary Saenz said by phone Monday, March 26, his office had received the lawsuit earlier in the day and hadn’t had time to review it and offer a comment. 
 
 The ordinance – one of three passed earlier this month – says the city can award only 17 cannabis business licenses in this first year; with 19 different cannabis license types available under California law, certain businesses can hold a monopoly on the marketplace, the suit says. 
 
 State law grants cities the authority to limit cannabis businesses as they choose. 
 
 Additionally, Smith claims, the ordinance disqualifies any cannabis-related enterprise previously labeled as non-compliant with city law from holding a commercial license. And a renewal could be denied if a business owner is found to have operated in violation of city or state law. 
 
 Cities such as Los Angeles and Oakland are going the opposite direction and giving priority in licensing to business owners who’ve had cannabis-related convictions in the past. Such social equity programs have been created to help undo some of the historic harms from the war on drugs. 
 
 San Bernardino’s requirements violate due process, the suit says. They do “not require a conviction, administrative hearing, or any other process other than that the City of San Bernardino has determined that the actions occurred.” 
 
 “This misguided ordinance is a backdoor ban that continues the City’s illogical campaign against a legal product,” Smith said in a statement. 
 
 Smith made headlines late last year when San Bernardino police seized nearly 25,000 marijuana plants at three Bubba Likes Tortillas locations as part of an intensive investigation. One of the locations was less than a block from the rear of the police station. 
 
 Smith’s home also was raided. She was not arrested, though eight men at the sites were arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana. Less than a week later, nearly 4.5 tons of marijuana was seized at another warehouse owned by Smith. 
 
 Smith did not have a permit to grow in the city, authorities said. 
 
 San Bernardino’s marijuana laws have been murky for a while. 
 
 Voters in 2016 passed Measure O, a ballot measure requiring the city allow marijuana dispensaries in certain areas. Three permits were awarded, including one to the Flesh Showgirls strip club on Hospitality Lane. Measure O’s validity later was challenged in court, putting those permits in limbo. 
 
 Smith’s operations were uprooted Dec. 13 and 19. On Dec. 20, city leaders passed a temporary moratorium on certain marijuana activities not covered by Measure O. Nine days later, a San Bernardino County Superior Court judge tentatively ruled Measure O invalid for spot zoning – that is, singling out parcels of land for uses benefiting their owners at the expense of others in the surrounding area. 
 
 Under Measure O’s zoning restrictions, Judge David Cohn wrote, only two locations in city – one being the Flesh Club, which is not associated with Bubba Likes Tortillas – would be allowed to sell marijuana. 
 
 Captain Jack’s, a dispensary at the Flesh Club address, opened to the public in January with a city and a state license. 
 
 On Feb. 1, the City Council extended the temporary moratorium up to 10 months and 15 days. At the end of the month, Cohn declared Measure O invalid in his final, written decision. An appeal was filed on behalf of the Flesh Club owner, and Saenz said the court ruled Monday that dispensaries operating with a Measure O permit and a state license can continue operating in the city until at least April 27. 
 
 The court at that time is expected to make a determination on the city’s new commercial cannabis ordinance, Saenz said. “There’s a lot going on in the cannabis world as far as San Bernardino is concerned right now.” ||||| PACIFIC PALISADES (CBSLA) — Stephanie Smith, who describes herself as a real estate developer educated at Boston College and UCLA, made news in December, when police accused her of running a multimillion-dollar marijuana grow operation in San Bernardino. 
 
 The blonde and blue-eyed 43-year old mother of five with a huge smile made headlines around the world after San Bernardino police raided three buildings she owned and confiscated thousands of marijuana plants all seen on video. Investigators got suspicious when a $67,000 electric bill popped up at one of her properties thought to be vacant and red-tagged it. 
 
 Smith lives 80 miles from San Bernardino in Pacific Palisades, where police showed up on her doorstep. 
 
 Smith posted security camera photos online from that day and wrote, “Raiding a woman and toddlers with SWAT in full gear and guns is absurd.” 
 
 Smith declined an interview but through a statement from her attorney she says she’s “a well-known and recognized leader in large-scale cannabis real estate development.” 
 
 She insists she just owns the buildings saying: “The tenants in my buildings were compliant with the laws of the State of California and had applied for licenses from the City of San Bernardino multiple times. only to have their applications rejected for technical reasons. 
 
 “These raids certainly inconvenienced me, but they devastated my tenants, who are small-business operators, destroyed over 100 local jobs that paid excellent wages, squandered badly needed local tax revenue.” 
 
 San Bernardino Community Development Director Mark Persico is in charge of permitting marijuana businesses and says the city is an attractive spot for marijuana businesses. They already have 50 applications in the works because of Measure O, which passed in 2016. 
 
 “The measure sets up a permitting process for both the cultivation of marijuana as well as the sales, testing, distribution. … It sets up a whole permit structure,” said Persico, 
 
 Police say the operators of the business did not have the proper permits to run a business of this scale. The plants will be destroyed, and the operators could be charged with misdemeanors. 
 
 If Smith looks or sounds familiar, she was the subject of a story CBS2 ran in 2008. 
 
 Back then, her last name was Darcy and she was accused of performing liposuction on patients in Dr. Craig Alan Bittner’s Beverly Hills office, even though she didn’t have a medical degree. 
 
 Three patients sued Smith and Bittner, but the cases were dismissed. 
 
 You might recall Bittner also made headlines for turning fat into biodiesel for his SUV. The two now work together in real estate development. 
 
 A Statement From Smith: 
 
 As a professional real estate developer with several million square feet of commercial and industrial space throughout California, I provide the infrastructure for all types of industry to operate and prosper, including the cannabis industry. I am a well-known and recognized leader in large-scale cannabis real estate development and I am proud of the State of California’s position on cannabis. 
 
 Clearly the Mayor of San Bernardino and I feel differently about cannabis. I’m strongly on the side of the majority voters in San Bernardino and elsewhere who demand the regulation and taxation of commercial cannabis. The tenants in my buildings were compliant with the laws of the State of California and I had applied for licenses from the City of San Bernardino multiple times only to have their applications rejected for technical reasons. In raiding buildings that I own, the Mayor of San Bernardino opposed the will of the voters, wasted city resources and in the process squandered well over $1 million of potential annual city taxes from the businesses of my tenants. 
 
 These raids certainly inconvenienced me, but they devastated my tenants who are small business operators, destroyed over one hundred local jobs that paid excellent wages, squandered badly needed local tax revenue and violated the will of the voters of San Bernardino. 
 
 As for the marijuana investigation, the feds helped San Bernardino police with their investigation but say it’s up to police if they want to move forward with pressing charges. Again, Smith hasn’t been arrested. ||||| LOS ANGELES -- Police in Southern California raided a weed "fortress" on Wednesday, seizing 35,000 marijuana plants and shutting down an operation they believe was bringing in millions of dollars a month. 
 
 San Bernardino Police say eight people were detained Wednesday when police and federal agents raided the warehouse that was converted into a multi-level grow house. 
 
 Investigators first turned their sights on the illegal grow operation about two months ago after receiving complaints from neighbors. They found the once-abandoned warehouse had been outfitted with a 12-foot metal rolling fence, "fortified doors," a large concrete wall around the parking lot and surveillance cameras. 
 
 Inside the four-story warehouse, police found thousands of plants stacked next to one another under heat lamps on wood tables and an advanced irrigation system. The electric bill for the property was about $67,000 per month, police said. 
 
 "In my 26 years, it was the biggest grow that I've ever seen," San Bernardino police Lt. Mike Madden said. "There were all different rooms for different processes and hydration, filtration and ventilation. It was pretty extensive." 
 
 CBS Los Angeles reports that police are investigating the owner, identified as 43-year-old Stephanie Smith. She was not arrested or charged with a crime. A telephone number for Smith could not be located in public records. 
 
 San Bernardino Police Dept./CBS News 
 
 Police and federal investigators raided two other properties owned by Smith and seized 18,000 pounds of marijuana in total. Eight people who were working in the warehouse in downtown San Bernardino were detained by police, but no charges have been filed in the case, Madden said. 
 
 California voters have approved the legalization of marijuana, but growers must receive licenses and permits from local governments and the state. Recreational pot sales start in California on Jan. 1, joining the long-running medical cannabis industry. 
 
 "Marijuana has been legalized, but there are stringent requirements," Madden said. "It's not that you just get to set up shop where you want to set up." 
 
 The Los Angeles City Council voted Dec. 6 to license sales beginning next year. After months of debate and political snags, the council approved rules to usher in commercial sales and cultivation set to begin in less than a month under an initiative approved by state voters. 
 
 California is among 29 states where pot is legal, either for medical or recreational use. Medical marijuana has been legal in the state for two decades. 
 
 With the new year just weeks away -- and the holidays coming -- industry experts say it's not clear how many businesses, if any, will be ready to open their doors on Jan. 1 to hordes of anxious customers. 
 
 Under the Los Angeles regulations, residential neighborhoods would be largely off-limits to pot businesses, and buffer zones would be set up around schools, libraries and parks.
– A Los Angeles mom accused of running a multimillion-dollar marijuana grow operation in San Bernardino is now suing the city to overturn its pot regulation ordinance, the AP reports. Stephanie Smith, a 43-year-old real estate developer and mother of five, owns three buildings in San Bernardino that were raided by police in December. Thousands of marijuana plants were confiscated, CBS Los Angeles reported at the time. Smith was not arrested or charged, but police accused her of being in charge of the pot "fortress"; she said she was simply the landlord and that her tenants' activities were legal. In her lawsuit, she argues San Bernardino's ordinance "is a backdoor ban that continues the city's illogical campaign against a legal product," CBS reports. California legalized recreational marijuana last year, but sales did not begin until Jan. 1, CBS reported at the time. Smith, who says she is the biggest landlord of marijuana businesses in the state, argues that under the San Bernardino ordinance—which was passed by the city council after Smith's buildings were raided—"any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market," per the San Bernardino Sun. That's because Smith says her tenants were in the process of being licensed when they were raided, and got approval to operate a week after authorities shut them down, but the ordinance bars anyone who has violated local or state laws related to the cannabis industry from ever entering the commercial cannabis business in the city. "San Bernardino is ... guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market," her attorney says. Smith says that could result in monopolies forming in the cannabis industry, and could also prevent her from renting to those in the industry.