The 4-0 vote last week came without public testimony. Councilman Robert Ziprick did not attend Tuesday's meeting.
Medical marijuana advocates have strongly opposed bans, even temporary moratoriums on dispensaries, arguing that such decisions force patients with legal marijuana prescriptions to turn to the black market.
Loma Linda Mayor Stan Brauer reiterated that he is not for or against dispensaries but wants the city to have time to determine what zoning changes and other restrictions should be put in place to avoid costly legal challenges in the future.
City Attorney Richard Holdaway told the council that he is still awaiting a decision in an appellate case brought by medical marijuana advocates against the city of Anaheim, which banned medical marijuana dispensaries. Cities and counties throughout California have been looking to that case as a precedent.
Loma Linda's Community Development Department staff members said last year, when the city first enacted its moratorium, that they had received several inquiries from prospective medical marijuana dispensary operators.
The city of San Bernardino banned dispensaries last year after exhausting the two-year moratorium limit there. Yucaipa also has enacted a permanent ban. Hemet has extended its moratorium through April 2011 and San Bernardino County, which has issued permits for marijuana use, also imposed a moratorium on dispensaries.
California voters decriminalized medical marijuana in 1996, but San Bernardino and San Diego counties filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the decision. The counties declined to issue permits until after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal last year.
Holdaway told Loma Linda council members that their latest moratorium extension will be the last they are allowed as a temporary measure. The extension required a four-fifths vote of the council, he said, because it was being enacted as an urgency measure to be immediately enforced.
Source: The Press-Enterprise
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