With no one from the public addressing the matter and almost no discussion among its members, the Eureka City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend a moratorium on the permitting of medical marijuana dispensaries. On an ever-changing legal landscape, the 10-month, 15-day moratorium extension is designed to allow the city to further evaluate the “legal parameters” of the city’s medical marijuana ordinance, which the city has been informed is in violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act, Thadeus Greenson reports in the Eureka Times-Standard. ”I think pretty much our hands are tied at this point,” [...]
No new medical marijuana dispensaries will be permitted in Humboldt County for at least 45 days after the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon to approve a temporary moratorium. Assistant Humboldt County Counsel Carolyn Ruth said the county is awaiting more information from the Pack vs. Superior Court case to see whether local governments can regulate marijuana dispensaries. In the Long Beach case, the 2nd District Court of Appeal concluded that federal law — which deems marijuana an illegal substance — pre-empted the city’s right to regulate marijuana, Megan Hansen reports in the Eureka [...]
A month after opting to stay the course on its medical marijuana dispensary ordinance, the Eureka City Council reversed its course Tuesday, enacting a 45-day moratorium on the permitting of dispensaries within city limits. Citing federal threats and a shifting legal landscape, the council voted to approve the moratorium after 25 minutes of discussion, Thadeus Greenson reports in the Eureka Times-Standard. The council could opt to extend it at the conclusion of the 45-day period. ”This gives us all a chance to take a breath and see what our path should be,” said Councilwoman Marian [...]
Just weeks after opting to stay the course in the face of threatened federal action regarding its medical marijuana ordinance, the Eureka City Council is rethinking its strategy. The council asked staff Tuesday to bring its ordinance back for discussion at its next meeting — scheduled for Nov. 1 — for more discussion in light of a recent state appeals court decision and a number of actions by the federal government. ”We will probably talk about a moratorium, at the very least,” Councilman Mike Newman said Wednesday. He added that the legal landscape of medical [...]
A divided Eureka City Council voted Tuesday to essentially shrug off federal threats and make only minor revisions to its medical marijuana ordinance, rather than approving an emergency moratorium on dispensaries within city limits. Acting without absent Councilman Lance Madsen, the council voted 3-2, with council members Melinda Ciarabellini and Marian Brady dissenting and Mayor Frank Jager casting the tie-breaking vote, to ask the city’s planning commission to recommend revisions to the city’s existing ordinance that would limit the size of cultivation operations within the four dispensaries allowed to operate under the ordinance. The vote [...]
The Eureka City Council is poised to approve a 45-day moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities Tuesday in order to allow time for the city to decide how to proceed in the face of federal threats. At its last meeting, the council asked city staff to put together a proposed moratorium ordinance, with members saying the city needs more time to study how best to amend its medical marijuana land use ordinance to shield the city from federal scrutiny, Thadeus Greenson reports in the Eureka Times-Standard. Passed in August of 2010, and modified [...]
The Eureka City Council directed staff to put together an ordinance placing a moratorium on the permitting of medical marijuana facilities Tuesday, spooked by threats of federal prosecution. The city’s medical cannabis ordinance — passed by a previous council in August 2010 and modified by the current council in May — regulates personal residential marijuana cultivation on a land-use basis and allows the permitting of four medical marijuana dispensaries. But city staff recently sought input on the ordinance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and received a sternly written letter warning of possible prosecutions and other [...]
The Eureka City Council is slated to reconsider its medical marijuana ordinance Tuesday night after receiving a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice threatening possible legal action. The letter from U.S. Northern District Attorney Melinda Haag warns that — despite state law legalizing marijuana for medical purposes — the substance remains illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act, classified as a Schedule I drug along with heroin and other narcotics. While Haag wrote that the Department of Justice will not focus limited resources on “seriously ill individuals who use marijuana as a part of [...]
For Southern Humboldt resident Kristin Nevedal, an avid gardener and a trained herbalist, marijuana is just another plant. ”It doesn’t make sense to me that there’s not access to it, and it doesn’t make sense that you can’t grow it in your backyard,” she said, adding that any herbal plant can be abused if taken improperly. The key is education, Nevedal told Donna Tam of the Eureka Times-Standard. As the medical marijuana industry grows and evolves, residents like Nevedal are bringing their beliefs and craft to the forefront through trade groups such as the Humboldt [...]
Eureka City Council members are reviewing proposals for medical marijuana facilities up for discussion March 15 after time concerns and questions about whether three sites were too many were raised last week. The city’s medical marijuana ordinance was passed last year by the previous council, but a majority of the seats changed hands in November’s election, Allison White reports in the Eureka Times-Standard. A committee that included Councilwomen Linda Atkins and Marian Brady recommended three of the 25 submitted proposals to be invited to apply for a conditional use permit. The council tabled the item [...]
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