NEWS: Mountain View to ban medical marijuana — for now

No medical marijuana dispensaries will be allowed in Mountain View, at least not until April 18 of next year.

At their meeting Tuesday night, Mountain View City Council members voted to ban pot clubs for now, but they made it clear they intend to eventually allow them after city officials develop some restrictions.

"There is an interest in making this available — medical marijuana — for those that need it, absolutely," Council Member Laura Macias said. "We just want to make it safe and affordable."
The council cast its 4-2 vote to introduce an ordinance banning dispensaries at a packed, sometimes standing-room-only meeting that also included a discussion of proposed city budget cuts. Council Member Mike Kasperzak was absent.

Like other local cities including Los Altos, San Carlos and Redwood City, Mountain View officials decided to take up the issue of medical marijuana because there has been more interest in opening dispensaries since federal authorities announced they would stop prosecutions in states where medical marijuana is legal, such as California.

City officials proposed an "interim urgency ordinance" earlier this month that would have immediately but temporarily banned medical marijuana dispensaries, but it needed six votes to pass and failed by a 5-2 vote. Though the regular ordinance passed Tuesday will take longer to go into effect because it needs to be formally adopted — scheduled for March 9 — it only needed four votes to pass instead of six.

And in essence the ordinance is temporary because of a provision automatically ending it on April 18, 2011. This June, council members plan to begin discussing the specifics of a policy to allow dispensaries.

"We're looking at maybe a year, maximum, but the intent is that we want to see where (a medical marijuana dispensary) could potentially work in Mountain View," Council Member Margaret Abe-Koga said.

Several medical marijuana advocates spoke at Tuesday's meeting, trying to discourage the city from passing any ban. Many speakers reiterated that 64 percent of voters in Santa Clara County passed a law legalizing medical marijuana in 1996.

"We're dealing with sick people here who are suffering," said Lauren Vazquez, director of the Silicon Valley chapter of Americans for Safe Access. "Our chapter, we're not going to go away. The more you drag this on, the more we have to come out here and take up your time and ours."
Council Members John Inks and Tom Means voted against the ban. Inks said the city should "leave some hope that we're really serious about this now. Because otherwise this is something that can easily just be shelved, and I can see that happening."

Means tried but failed to convince his colleagues that medical marijuana clubs should not be taxed when eventually allowed to operate.

On Wednesday, Mountain View resident Brian David, who wants to open a medical marijuana collective in Mountain View called the Shoreline Wellness Collective, said he hopes the city can develop a regulatory ordinance as early as this summer.

"From what I gathered," he added, the council discussion "was pretty much in our favor. They did ban them, but it's only a temporary ban and they want to honestly look into it."

Earlier in the meeting, residents and city employees packed the council chambers and overflowed into the hall outside for a discussion of Mountain View's 2010-11 budget. The city plans to cut about $2 million, raise $1 million in new revenue and limit employee compensation costs to save $1 million. Those measures would help the city dent a projected $5 million budget deficit in its approximately $132 million general fund.

Last week, City Manager Kevin Duggan released a list of potential cost-saving measures, from reducing library use by six to eight hours per week, to cutting as much as $1.4 million from the police department. About 37 city staff positions could be cut, including about 24 currently filled spots, Duggan said.

"These are difficult reductions," Duggan said Tuesday. "These are not good things to do."
People representing different groups — from Deer Hollow Farm to public safety — came to the meeting to lobby for their respective causes.

"I'd like to hear what you don't like, what you would cut," Means said. "Because we're going to have to cut something."

More information about the budget is available on the city's Web site, www.mountainview.gov.

Source: Mercury News