NEWS: Rancho Mirage council may put off vote on medical marijuana

Rancho Mirage's City Council could vote Thursday to put an indefinite hold on the medical marijuana dispensary issue after delaying the topic three times.

City Attorney Steve Quintanilla said Monday he's requesting the delay because the city of Anaheim is appealing the court decision that led city officials to believe they might be forced to allow at least some dispensaries to operate there.

He knew this was a possibility, but, “at the last minute, they filed the papers which let me know they were serious about it.”

The council also plans a special meeting for 1 p.m. Dec. 14 so the council can vote on whether to extend a moratorium on dispensaries that is set to expire the next day.

Quintanilla said he will recommend a yearlong moratorium. The council unanimously approved three previous requests to delay the discussion from Quintanilla.

Rick Pantele, a Rancho Mirage resident and cancer survivor who uses medical marijuana under the state's voter-approved law, said he isn't surprised leaders might put the issue off further, given their pragmatic approach to the issue up to this point.

“The reality is the city attorney said in the last meeting that they're not for medical marijuana in Rancho Mirage; the only reason they're looking at it is they don't get sued,” he said.

Quintanilla said it could happen anyway, coming from a dispensary that opened in Rancho Mirage earlier this year but shut down for the moratorium. Two others want to open in the city as well.

“I guess they're getting impatient, so they have threatened to sue,” he said, though no suit had been filed as of Monday.

Jeff Lake, the attorney for the dispensaries, didn't return calls seeking comment.

Until the council vote was first delayed Oct. 21, the city appeared to be on a fast track to becoming the second Coachella Valley city, after Palm Springs, to allow some dispensaries.

It had never adopted an outright ban that the other seven cities had adopted. So staff scrambled to put together dispensary regulations when one opened in the city after getting turned down for a business permit.

A state court of appeals had recently ruled Anaheim could not use federal laws against marijuana use as the basis to ban medical dispensaries.

This led leaders to believe the city would be forced to allow some to operate in Rancho Mirage.

But the momentum in legislative and court decisions now seems to be going the other way, with Anaheim's appeal supported by a number of other cities and Los Angeles and Orange counties banning dispensaries in unincorporated areas.

Public opposition to medical marijuana has been minimal in Rancho Mirage, but appears to be growing in other parts of California, Mayor Richard Kite said.

“There seems to be more of a concern about the lawful dispensaries currently serving those cities and some of the activities surrounding them,” he said.

Another factor in the lack of public opposition is the absence of public testimony at the last two council meetings.

Kite said there will be a public hearing on Dec. 14. Quintanilla said residents also can speak Thursday, but judges reviewing new laws only look at the minutes from meetings where votes were taken.

Source: The Desert Sun

NEWS: L.A. County Deputies Branch Out in Fight Against Pot Shops

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies Wednesday seized marijuana from a Palm Springs outlet, as part of a four-county crack down on an organization accused of selling the drug for profit.

Deputies seized several products at Holistic Collective of Palm Springs at 2235 N. Palm Canyon Drive, starting about 11 a.m., sheriff's Capt. Ralph Ornelas of the Narcotics Bureau said.
"This organization is running it outside legal ramifications of what the law is meant to be with medical marijuana," he said.

Deputies with the Sheriff's Marijuana Dispensary Task Force raided collectives simultaneously in Riverside, Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles counties, Ornelas said.

The Riverside County District Attorney's Office assisted with the operation, but no arrests were made at the Palm Springs shop, Ornelas said.

Proposition 19, which on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot, would essentially legalize the sale of pot to anyone 21 or older and provide for its taxation, but Ornelas said that was not a consideration.

"I didn't take that into account. This investigation has been going on for some time. I'm not worried about politics. We're worried about doing the right thing," he said.

Source: NBC LA

NEWS: Wildomar commission to consider regulations to allow medical marijuana dispensaries

Wildomar could start on a path this week toward becoming the second Riverside County city to allow medical marijuana dispensaries.

The city's Planning Commission on Wednesday will consider a new law that would regulate the dispensaries, lifting a ban in place since Wildomar became a city in 2008.

First, the commission must decide if dispensaries are appropriate for the city. If so, it must decide how and where they can operate.

City Attorney Julie Hayward-Biggs drafted regulations based on a law passed by the city of Laguna Woods, an Orange County retirement community.

In a report prepared for the meeting, Planning Director David Hogan said commissioners could accept the ordinance as is, reject it or modify it as they see fit.

For example, the draft would give the city administration power to issue permits to dispensaries. The commission could decide to make the process more onerous, requiring public hearings before a business can open.

The draft would allow dispensaries in commercial zones only. But, Hogan said in the report, the commission could decide to relegate the businesses to industrial zones only, or it could allow them in both commercial and industrial zones.

Commissioners must also decide how far the dispensaries should be from schools, parks and other places children are likely to be. The draft law calls for them to be at least 1,000 feet away.

The draft does not put a cap on the number dispensaries allowed in the city. It allows them to be open only from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. And it requires the businesses to have security cameras and to keep the tapes for at least two weeks in case police need them to investigate a crime.

All such regulations could be altered if the commission approves a new law.

The push to allow dispensaries began this spring, when a nonprofit marijuana collective, the Wildomar Patients Compassionate Group, opened a storefront location on Mission Trail. The collective's manager, William Sump, walked into City Hall and announced he would open the store, though city codes forbade it.

Wildomar's rules on medical marijuana were inherited from Riverside County when the city incorporated.

The collective's opening and subsequent quick closure sparked a response from local medical marijuana activists, who persuaded the council to consider allowing dispensaries.

In April, the council voted 4-1, with Mayor Bridgette Moore dissenting, to direct the city attorney to draft the new law. If the Planning Commission votes in favor of a new ordinance, the law would proceed to the City Council for approval.

Source: The Press-Enterprise