The city says 186 dispensaries will be allowed to operate, but attorneys representing marijuana patients said the city's ordinance restricts the dispensary locations so much that there's almost no place that they can relocate and still be legal.
The dispensaries cannot be near schools or parks, and they can't be on a lot abutting residential properties.
"What I can imagine is within 30 days, you're going to see a vast majority of these locations shut down. Even the people that are able to register will have no place to go," said attorney Eric Shevin.
"We'll be back in this court, and we'll have real hardship, real suffering and real sick people who have been denied access to their medicine," he said.
The attorneys brought maps that showed that 95 percent of the city would be restricted, but the judge felt it was too early to predict what will happen. He felt that no one would see the effects of the ordinance until after it takes effect.
Attorneys for the patients said they were very disappointed with the decision.
"The idea is to stop the law from going into effect because we see that the harm has already happened to people, and it's going to continue as people lose access to their medicine," said attorney Matthew Kumin.
Meanwhile, the judge is concerned about privacy issues with medical marijuana patients. The ordinance could allow police to have access to a patient's medical records. The issue will be discussed in a hearing on July 7.
