San Diego may soon create a path to legitimacy for the more than 80 medical marijuana dispensaries that currently operate in an unregulated atmosphere that has led to raids, arrests and frustration.
A slew of new land-use regulations that would provide direction to police and code-enforcement officers as they try to regulate the businesses won approval yesterday from a City Council committee.
California voters legalized the use of medical marijuana by seriously ill patients in 1996 with Proposition 215.
The new city rules would prohibit dispensaries from operating within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, libraries, child-care facilities, youth centers, churches and parks. The dispensaries also could not be within 1,000 feet of each other to prevent a cluster of such stores in a particular neighborhood.
The pot shops also would have limited business hours, and a security guard would be mandatory to reduce crime.
Alex Kreit, chairman of the city’s Medical Marijuana Task Force, which recommended many of the changes, said that regardless of one’s opinion on medical marijuana, the city needs to put rules in place.
“More important than any of the specifics of the task force recommendations is the general principle that the city enact some sort of regulatory system that allows patients who have legitimate medical marijuana (needs) to have safe access to their medicine and at the same time ensures that abuses … are protected against,” said Kreit, a Thomas Jefferson School of Law professor.
The city of San Diego has no regulations pertaining to medical marijuana businesses, which has created confusion for owners and public safety officials.
The council committee voted 3-1 to create an ordinance based on the task force’s recommendations, with some slight tweaks. The ordinance is expected to go before the full council within the next two months.
Councilman Tony Young said he couldn’t support the proposal because it didn’t include a cap on the number of dispensaries allowed in the city. Other cities, such as Oakland and Los Angeles, have such caps.
Rudy Reyes, who was seriously burned in the 2003 Cedar fire and uses marijuana to ease his pain, urged the council to move ahead with the regulations.
“There are those of us out there that are sick, dying and hurting. ... We want you to stand up as the hero for us,” Reyes said. “Stop the hysteria ... finalize this.”
The vagueness of state laws allowing the use of medical marijuana and the fact that the drug is still illegal under federal law have prompted cities across the state to take different approaches in regulating use of marijuana. San Diego County and the cities of Escondido and El Cajon have banned dispensaries.
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
Posts
