Federal jury sides with Rye cannabis grow facility in controversial lawsuit

In a landmark decision regarding marijuana and the strong smell that often comes with it, a federal jury has ruled against a couple from Rye who filed a racketeering lawsuit against a neighboring marijuana grow facility.

Michael and Phillis Reilly, who filed the lawsuit in 2015, claimed the warehouse was emitting noxious odors and lowered their property value. The verdict was watched by many in Colorado and the impact it would have on the future of Colorado’s marijuana industry.

Parker Walton is the owner of CannaCraft Co. — a small weed cultivation facility. He says before his business was up and running, he was hit with the lawsuit.

Walton said, “We started construction in January of 2015, in February of 2015 we had this case over the top of us.”

The couple who filed the lawsuit lives a few hundred yards away. In the lawsuit, it claims Walton was breaking federal law by growing marijuana and the odor from the plants was lowering their property value.

Three years after it was filed, the jury made their decision.

“You never know what these people are going to say when your fate is in your hands.” said Walton, “At the end of the day they came back unanimously in our decision, I was very relieved.”

The jury said the plaintiffs could not prove the odor was negatively impacting their property value. We tried to speak to the Reilly’s about the outcome but did not hear back.

Their attorney did release a statement that said in part, they were disappointed with the jury’s decision but the marijuana industry has not seen its last day in federal court.

As for the other handful of neighbors, they say they can sometimes smell the cannabis and they had concerns when the facility was first being built. Fred Hicken is one of them but says he’s happy with the court’s decision.

“I think it’s great,” says Hicken, “I think we should encourage small businesses not harass them with frivolous lawsuits.”

While the verdict won’t stop similar lawsuits from happening, Walton says it will change the way each case will be looked at.

“We did show these third-party organizations or anybody who wants to put this money into fighting this, that at the end of the day it’s probably going to be fruitless,” said Walton.