BY: Aaron Crutchfield, Atascadero News -
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors will tell the county’s grand jury that its recommendations for the county to make new local regulations regarding medical marijuana dispensaries aren’t warranted or reasonable at this time.
The civil grand jury said in a report in June that the county isn’t properly regulating mobile dispensaries and has basically stopped progress on brick-and-mortar clinics by denying the only three applicants in the past five years, in Nipomo, Templeton and Oceano.
But in the proposed response to the grand jury, which is expected to be approved at the board’s Tuesday, Aug. 21 meeting, the board said now’s not really a good time to make new rules.
“This is an inopportune time to develop local regulations given the fact that the California Supreme Court is expected to issue rulings in the next few years related to how jurisdictions regulate medical marijuana,” supervisors said in the proposed response. “Further, the county board of supervisors is of the opinion that the most appropriate approach to this matter of public policy is a state statute. A single set of statutes and related regulations would provide for consistent and effective protection.”
Also in the response, the supervisors said that, indeed, there hadn’t been any brick-and-mortar dispensaries approved, but that was because they didn’t meet the requirements set forth in the county’s land-use ordinance.
The county also agreed that there is no way to really know how many mobile dispensaries are operating here without a license, but that county staff has seen ads in local newspapers for mobile delivery services that claim to deliver here, so it is assumed that there are collectives in operation here.
But the supervisors intend to wait for the state to make its decisions before making new laws.
“It is expected that the rulings to be issued as a result of this review will clarify much of the legal confusion that has existed around medical marijuana-related laws,” supervisors said in the proposed response.
They also noted that mobile dispensaries can travel from county to county, this making it better for state statues to regulate them for consistent and effective public protection.
Supervisors did agree with the grand jury that the county should require mobile dispensaries to possess a business license and seller’s permit, and supervisors have implemented that recommendation.
The response to the grand jury is on the consent agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. If approved, the response would be sent to the courthouse by Aug. 27.
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