Bud’s note: This lead would get sent back for a rewrite if I ran the Herald newsroom, which I don’t. The ambiguous reference to Prop. 19′s ambiguity isn’t explained, nor is it clear how banning dispensaries resolves any issues with legalization. The opposite is true, however: Legalization could be the very best tool available to fight dispensary bans. That’s something medical marijuana users should consider carefully as their access rights are systematically curtailed by cities and counties statewide. ===================== In an effort to cut through the ambiguity posed by Proposition 19 on the Nov. 2 [...]
Mar 242010
The Atascadero City Council on Tuesday approved a permanent ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, meaning it is no longer the only city in San Luis Obispo County without such an ordinance. Earlier this month, however, Morro Bay’s City Council approved actions to work toward allowing a dispensary in that community, reports The Tribune of San Luis Obispo. Atascadero’s council approved the ban 5-0 after numerous members of the public, including medical marijuana users, asked the council to reconsider. “I think we do have to be compassionate,” Councilman Tom O’Malley said as he and other council [...]
Although Martinez has had an ordinance allowing medical marijuana dispensaries on the books for 10 years, it has never approved one. In the past few months, several groups seeking to open dispensaries have approached Martinez. In response to Police Chief Tom Simonetti’s call for a ban on the facilities, the city’s Public Safety Subcommittee has been considering changes to the existing ordinance. Vice Mayor Lara DeLaney and Councilman Mike Menesini, who sit on the subcommittee, on Monday reviewed the latest draft. The proposed ordinance changes the permit for a dispensary from a conditional use permit [...]
Fresno isn’t the only central San Joaquin Valley community working to weed out medical-marijuana dispensaries. In recent months, counties and smaller cities across the Valley have been scrambling to pass laws banning the businesses, The Fresno Bee reports here. At least six cities and two counties in the region have approved temporary or permanent bans on dispensaries — apparently in response to a new Obama administration policy that has prompted several such clubs to open up in the Valley. Fresno’s effort to shutter dispensaries may have led many of them to look for more receptive [...]
In this editorial headlined “Rx for dope,” the San Diego Union-Tribune opines that medical marijuana dispensaries should operate “only as police-regulated businesses, just like massage parlors, strip joints, pawn shops and numerous other businesses. Would-be dispensary owners and operators should be required to submit their applications to the police department and they and their employees should be subject to criminal background checks. Police should be the lead enforcement agency for compliance.” Yeah, that’ll work. In the long stretch of logic required for such a conclusion, the editorial writer notes a “stunning comment” made by Steve [...]
Dec 092009
The L.A. Times reports that the Los Angeles City Council took several key steps Tuesday toward completing an ordinance that would regulate the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries. The decisions, reached after hours of often heated debate, came more than 4 1/2 years after the council first looked at the issue. At that time, there were four known dispensaries in the city. Hundreds opened while the city failed to enforce a moratorium on dispensaries, the Times reports. The new ordinance would grandfather in 137 dispensaries already registered with the city, while enacting a limit of 70 [...]
Dec 092009
According to this article in the Siskiyou Daily News, the Montague City Council unanimously approved two marijuana-related ordinances at its Thursday meeting. The council first OK’ed Ordinance 09-07, termed “an Uncodified Interim Urgency Ordinance of the City Council of Montague Extending Interim Urgency Ordinance No. 09-06, which imposes a Temporary Moratorium on the Establishment of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in the City for an Additional 90 Days.” Prior to the 5-0 vote, Councilwoman Jayne Keller explained that the previous moratorium was for 45 days, giving the council time “in order to get this ordinance in place.” [...]
Nov 302009
On Tuesday the Woodland City Council will vote on an ordinance barring storefront medical marijuana dispensaries. The action follows a 2007 raid on a home-based dispensary run by Cheri Barr, according to this article in the Woodland Daily Democrat. The Yolo County district attorney’s office dropped felony charges against Barr, the newspaper reports, but her home was raided a second time in 2008.
Nov 132009
“Trinity County has joined the ranks of many cities and counties throughout the state weighing how to regulate medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives, with the Board of Supervisors set to consider a possible moratorium on storefront operations at its Dec. 1 meeting.” That constitutes the whole of this story posted by the Trinity Journal . You have to be a subscriber to read the whole story, or wait two weeks to read it in the archives as a non-subscriber. That particular approach is one of many models used by newspapers to help build paid readership [...]
Nov 092009
The Red Bluff City Council’s vote to ban indoor and outdoor marijuana cultivation could expose the city to lawsuits, medical marijuana advocates said in this Redding Record-Searchlight article. In the article, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access said only three other California cities have banned outdoor cultivation – Willits and Ukiah in Mendocino County and Cloverdale in Sonoma County. No legal challenges to those bans have been filed, the spokesman said.
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