By TIFFANY REVELLE The Daily Journal
Posted: 07/21/2011 12:00:07 AM PDT
The idea of forming an ad-hoc committee to prepare an ordinance governing medical marijuana dispensaries will go before the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, according to County Counsel Jeanine Nadel.
The Mendocino County grand jury recommended the board should adopt such an ordinance, spurring the discussion forward after work on a draft ordinance stopped. A board-appointed committee considered a draft Nadel prepared in October 2009, then directed her to stop work on it, according to the grand jury.
"The courts have made it very clear that counties have the ability to regulate (medical marijuana) dispensaries, or to determine if dispensaries should be able to exist," Nadel said.
Nadel estimates that 10 such dispensaries exist in Mendocino County, and said if the board votes to form an ad-hoc, it would have to address the question of how -- or whether -- to bring them into compliance with an ordinance.
The grand jury's April 20 report recommending a dispensary ordinance says "any number of dispensaries can be established anywhere in the county with merely the acquisition of a business license," and the public safety impacts of dispensaries on neighbors and surrounding communities aren't currently addressed.
The grand jury recommends that any ordinance to govern dispensaries should allow a 60-day grace period for existing dispensaries to come into compliance, address mobile dispensaries, address neighborhood safety, address the production and sale of medical marijuana food projects and paraphernalia, establish fee and penalties that cover the costs of regulation and enforcement, address transportation of medical marijuana within Mendocino County, define a mature female marijuana plant and establish a minimum age limit for those who can enter a dispensary.
The grand jury also recommends that the Board of Supervisors stop new dispensaries from being formed until such an ordinance is passed, and define dispensaries and collectives.
Additionally, the grand jury says "an undetermined number" of dispensaries exist in Mendocino County. Two dispensaries recently opened up in the Mendocino township, both within 1,000 feet of "areas frequented by school-aged children," according to the grand jury's report.
"The licensing of (medical marijuana dispensaries) raises the issue of whether, by enacting an ordinance, the county of Mendocino would have liability for and be complicit in violating federal marijuana laws," the grand jury states. "This is a concern that has been raised in many of the counties that have either passed or are considering an ordinance."
The grand jury additionally recommends that "members of the (Board of Supervisors) who may have in the past, or may be currently involved in the production of (medical marijuana), recuse themselves from any vote on this matter."
Tiffany Revelle can be reached at udjtr@pacific.net, or at 468-3523.
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_18520096
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