The City of Wildomar is faced with making a decision about allowing a medical marijuana collaborative to be opened within the City. Let me make it perfectly clear that I am not opposed to alleviating legitimate medical needs, as defined by a medical doctor, of anyone — far from it.
However, we need to look at some of the factors to consider in approving a medical marijuana facility within our community.
The medical benefits of marijuana and its synthetic derivative, Marinol, have been studied for decades now. Glaucoma, nausea relief, appetite enhancement and mood elevators seem pretty well a given. So why not rush out and start approving facilities to help alleviate needless pain and suffering? Nobody wants any human being to suffer, of course, but the key words are here are “needless suffering” and “rush.”
First off, there is still a clear conflict between State and Federal laws. It’s not known exactly how this is going to resolve itself, if it ever does. Voters in California will be asked about legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes this November. How will that affect marijuana collaboratives?
Would it be better to wait a few months and see what the outcome is? Is this truly a “rush” situation? Communities that have approved marijuana-dispensing facilities sometimes find themselves in a bind with their own law enforcement departments over enforcement issues. Also, are there secondary law enforcement issues about a marijuana dispensing facility in our community that we should consider? Does it have an impact on our already stretched thin police department? We should be pretty sure about that before we proceed, I think.
Second, how many marijuana facilities are required to serve our resident population? Of the folks testifying recently on advocating the opening of medical marijuana collaborative in Wildomar, how many of them were residents? Will we be attracting individuals from other communities? Are there other problems that may result from this?
Thirdly, let’s consider accessibility, (translate to “needless suffering”). I heard in testimony last Wednesday someone say, “These people are suffering right now. We’ve got to do something.”
As I said previously, I think I am about as compassionate a person as they come as I have spent thousands of volunteer hours in just about every cause you can think of. However, I also heard on Wednesday testimony from the owner of a medical marijuana collective in Lake Elsinore. Is it a valid argument to state that we need to move forward with all due haste on a medical marijuana collaborative in Wildomar when a similar facility is already available in Lake Elsinore? Here again, I’m not saying that perhaps a facility in town would not be appropriate, rather I’m saying let’s look very carefully before we leap.
Lastly, let’s consider the cost.
Yes, I know that perhaps the city can receive some kind of taxable proceeds from the sale of marijuana. However, I don’t think our motivation to open a facility should be based on that. It’s been estimated that the City has already spent $12,000 on preparing for this item at City Council. It will cost at least another $5,000 for legal review. We don’t know what additional law enforcement or other costs might be. If the City did want to tax it then we would have to have an election and that’s another cost at an estimate of $30,000.
If I was going to be flippant about this, I could suggest that it would have been far cheaper to have the City pay for taxi cab rides to Lake Elsinore for every resident of Wildomar with a legitimate doctor’s prescription. Of course this is ridiculous, but you can see these are real costs we’re talking about here.
I don’t know how this issue is going to resolve. Who knows, if my questions are all answered and the residents of Wildomar favor the establishment of marijuana collaborative, perhaps I’ll help lead the charge. But until those questions are cleared up, I strongly advise we take this one cautious step at a time. It’s generally a good rule of thumb to measure twice and cut once.
Bridgette Moore is Wildomar’s Mayor and was the lone dissenting vote April 28 on a city council motion to draft a new zoning ordinance to allow medical marijuana operations in Wildomar.
Source: Southwest Riverside News Network
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