In the ongoing drama, confusion and debate over how Long Beach can regulate medical marijuana collectives, the City Council worked out the final points of its ordinance Tuesday.
While one major issue has been how far from schools medical marijuana collectives should be located, the council has been most divided over whether marijuana should be grown at the collectives, within the city limits or have any location requirements at all.
Bucking the recommendation of police officials but giving medical marijuana advocates a sense of relief, the council voted not to place any restrictions on where collectives' medical marijuana comes from. The council deadlocked 4-4 on this point last month, but on Tuesday the swing vote, Councilman Dee Andrews, was back at City Hall.
Andrews said that requiring local collectives to cultivate marijuana locally could be too much of an impediment to getting the medicine to legitimate patients. Also, he said that the multiple warehouses that would be needed to supply Long Beach's medical marijuana needs could cause blight and crime.
Along with Andrews, council members Robert Garcia, Tonia Reyes Uranga, Rae Gabelich and Val Lerch voted to remove the local cultivation requirement.
Council members Suja Lowenthal, Gary DeLong, Gerrie Schipske and Patrick O'Donnell voted against taking out the rule, expressing concerns about where the marijuana might come from and whether drug cartels could use the ordinance to get a foothold in Long Beach.
However, the council left in other recommendations by police officials, including requirements that collectives identify where their marijuana was cultivated, test samples to ensure it is free of pesticides and other contaminants, destroy contaminated plants, and properly label marijuana for consumers.
The ordinance will likely return to the council next week for a final reading, but it is quite possible that more changes will be made to the evolving law.
Source: Press-Telegram
Posts
