The legal uncertainties of regulating medical pot clubs led the
Morgan Hill City Council Wednesday evening to unanimously extend a
moratorium on the controversial dispensaries until March 2008.
Morgan Hill – The legal uncertainties of regulating medical pot clubs led the Morgan Hill City Council Wednesday evening to unanimously extend a moratorium on the controversial dispensaries until March 2008.
In March, the city passed a 45-day moratorium on pot clubs after receiving inquiries in previous weeks on opening such facilities in Morgan Hill. The city currently has no laws prohibiting or regulating medical marijuana dispensaries. The 45-day moratorium was set to expire April 21, but state law allows cities to extend that period by 10 months and 15 days, which the council opted to do.
There was little discussion on the issue, with no members of the public coming forward to speak. City Councilman Mark Grzan said he is not prepared to ask for a permanent ban on medical marijuana clubs. Grzan also asked City Attorney Janet Kern to provide more information on whether the facilities would be any more of a crime magnet than other local businesses that are robbed, vandalized or harassed.
The Morgan Hill Police Department has already come out against medical pot dispensaries for patients with doctors prescriptions, pointing to armed robberies in the East Bay that resulted in cash and drugs falling into the black market.
The city of Santa Cruz, which has allowed two dispensaries to open within the last year and a half, requires police inspections of its pot clubs. According to Santa Cruz City Councilman Mike Rotkin, there has not been a problem with crime at the dispensaries.
The uncertain legalities of cultivating, distributing and using medical marijuana factored into the Morgan Hill City Council’s decision to continue the moratorium.
State and federal law conflict regarding legal uses of the drug, resulting in many cities and counties voting to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries or ban them altogether through zoning ordinances.
The majority of Bay Area cities have not adopted specific standards for dispensaries. There are currently no medical pot clubs on the books in South County.
On Tuesday, the city of Salinas, which is addressing the pot shop issue on a similar time line as Morgan Hill, decided to ban pot clubs after its 45-day moratorium was set to expire.
This month, Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo issued a legal opinion stating the sale of medical marijuana at dispensaries or “stores” is illegal under state and federal law. Under the Compassionate Use Act, approved by voters in 1996, only a “primary caregiver” can sell or provide marijuana to another person.
“In the English language, the term ‘primary caregiver’ does not mean a store,” said Flippo in an April 13 letter to Salinas City Attorney Vanessa Vallarta. “If the legislature wished to authorize medical marijuana stores or dispensaries, it could easily have added them along with primary caregivers in the Medical Marijuana Program Act” of 2003.
State Sen. Sheila James Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, requested earlier this year an opinion from California Attorney General Jerry Brown on whether local government officials could be hauled into federal court for approving medical marijuana dispensaries. The attorney general’s office is soliciting public input on the matter until May 8 before taking further action.
