MedicalNeed
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DEPENDING ON how you look at it, the Corte Madera Town Council has either taken its sweet time or hurried its approval of an emergency moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries.
Several Marin towns approved such moratoriums or bans years ago after California voters approved the 1996 Compassionate Use Act.
Last week, Corte Madera joined them. The council emerged from a closed-door meeting with its town attorney and passed an urgency ordinance that creates a 45-day ban on new medical pot shops.
The Fairfax Town Council recently voted for a similar ban, but unlike Corte Madera, Fairfax has for years authorized a medical marijuana dispensary and its moratorium is in response to plans to establish two more medical pot shops.
Corte Madera has been wrestling with the same issue and has challenged dispensaries that opened without town approval. One of the stores has moved out and another is the target of a town lawsuit.
Mayor Carla Condon said the moratorium underscores that "at the present time" a medical marijuana dispensary is not a permitted use in town. Town attorney Jeff Walter says the ban makes the zoning prohibition doubly clear.
The ban did more than clarify the issue.
The ban was put on the books without real public review and discussion.
At the Nov. 8 council meeting, the council came out of a closed-door meeting and voted, unanimously, before an audience that
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essentially consisted of two Redwood High School students who were working on a class assignment and the Twin Cities police chief.
In a town where two-thirds of voters endorsed Proposition 215 in 1996 and where, earlier this month, 61.2 percent supported Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure, there appears to be enough support for a real discussion of medical marijuana -- before a moratorium was hastily imposed.
At the very least, the council should allow time for more public debate and feedback if it holds hearings in January to make the temporary ban permanent.
Planning moratoriums often are used to buy time while officials work on the rules, regulations and restrictions they will use to guide the city's consideration of complex land-use matters.
In Fairfax, the Town Council asked staffers to review planning criteria for medicinal marijuana dispensaries. That makes sense.
Corte Madera's moratorium says that a temporary ban is needed to provide the town with the time it needs to study the planning issues and determine local rules needed to review any new requests for permits because town officials are expecting more medical pot shops to take root. The ordinance called them "a current and immediate threat."
The ordinance also says that in some jurisdictions, medical marijuana dispensaries have led to "reported increases" in illegal drug activities, drug sales, robbery and loitering.
Whatever the Town Council's motivation, it is not clear why it was in such a hurry and could not have taken another week to do a better job of including the public in its process.
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: marinij.com
Author: Marin Independent Journal Editorial
Contact: Contact us or subscribe - Marin Independent Journal
Copyright:2010. Marin Independent Journal. MediaNews Group.
Website:Editorial: Corte Madera rushed medical pot moratorium - Marin Independent Journal
Several Marin towns approved such moratoriums or bans years ago after California voters approved the 1996 Compassionate Use Act.
Last week, Corte Madera joined them. The council emerged from a closed-door meeting with its town attorney and passed an urgency ordinance that creates a 45-day ban on new medical pot shops.
The Fairfax Town Council recently voted for a similar ban, but unlike Corte Madera, Fairfax has for years authorized a medical marijuana dispensary and its moratorium is in response to plans to establish two more medical pot shops.
Corte Madera has been wrestling with the same issue and has challenged dispensaries that opened without town approval. One of the stores has moved out and another is the target of a town lawsuit.
Mayor Carla Condon said the moratorium underscores that "at the present time" a medical marijuana dispensary is not a permitted use in town. Town attorney Jeff Walter says the ban makes the zoning prohibition doubly clear.
The ban did more than clarify the issue.
The ban was put on the books without real public review and discussion.
At the Nov. 8 council meeting, the council came out of a closed-door meeting and voted, unanimously, before an audience that
Advertisement
essentially consisted of two Redwood High School students who were working on a class assignment and the Twin Cities police chief.
In a town where two-thirds of voters endorsed Proposition 215 in 1996 and where, earlier this month, 61.2 percent supported Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure, there appears to be enough support for a real discussion of medical marijuana -- before a moratorium was hastily imposed.
At the very least, the council should allow time for more public debate and feedback if it holds hearings in January to make the temporary ban permanent.
Planning moratoriums often are used to buy time while officials work on the rules, regulations and restrictions they will use to guide the city's consideration of complex land-use matters.
In Fairfax, the Town Council asked staffers to review planning criteria for medicinal marijuana dispensaries. That makes sense.
Corte Madera's moratorium says that a temporary ban is needed to provide the town with the time it needs to study the planning issues and determine local rules needed to review any new requests for permits because town officials are expecting more medical pot shops to take root. The ordinance called them "a current and immediate threat."
The ordinance also says that in some jurisdictions, medical marijuana dispensaries have led to "reported increases" in illegal drug activities, drug sales, robbery and loitering.
Whatever the Town Council's motivation, it is not clear why it was in such a hurry and could not have taken another week to do a better job of including the public in its process.
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: marinij.com
Author: Marin Independent Journal Editorial
Contact: Contact us or subscribe - Marin Independent Journal
Copyright:2010. Marin Independent Journal. MediaNews Group.
Website:Editorial: Corte Madera rushed medical pot moratorium - Marin Independent Journal
