City Weighs Pot Ban

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City weighs medical pot ban September 19, 2011, 03:30 AM Daily Journal Staff Report Medical marijuana businesses could be banned permanently in Redwood City if the Planning Commission agrees with city staff that enforcement will be costly and time consuming, crime could escalate and ongoing conflicts between state and federal policies make regulations challenging. The city already has a temporary moratorium in place and will hear from the public before deciding Tuesday whether to recommend a zoning amendment banning the facilities and, if so, whether to include a sunset provision. The commission could also opt to recommend letting the current moratorium expire Dec. 10 or in place of a ban, ask staff to create an ordinance allowing a limited number of facilities. The City Council will consider and vote on the recommendation at a future meeting. Since the moratorium took effect, city staff has looked at the legal and safety issues of regulating medical marijuana and how other cities have dealt with the issue. San Mateo County itself has a patchwork of bans and regulations on a city-by-city basis. San Carlos, San Mateo and San Mateo County permit the facilities while Colma, San Bruno, South San Francisco, Millbrae Brisbane, East Palo Alto and Half Moon Bay do not. Rather than prohibit the facilities, Redwood City could assess permit and regulatory fees but the funds may not be enough to fully cover the cost of enforcement or be at the expense of other priorities, according to a staff report compiled ahead of the public hearing. If the city let the facilities operate with review and oversight, the “adverse consequences” to the community could create “an irreversible incompatibility of land uses and secondary adverse impacts on residents and businesses,” Acting Principal Planner Blake Lyon wrote in the report. Regulation of medical marijuana is challenging, with local, state and federal laws often conflicting. California voters passed the Compassionate Use Act, in 1996, allowing sick patients to either grow their own marijuana or have a primary caregiver grow it for them. In 2003, the state Legislature passed the Medical Marijuana Program Act to clarify vague portions of the proposition. In August 2011, the Legislature passed another bill giving local government more power to regulate marijuana distribution facilities through enforcement of zoning regulations. Regardless of state law, dispensaries and users can still run into problems with federal enforcement. Redwood City officials are choosing to use the term “medical marijuana distribution facilities” in the proposed ordinance to avoid any legal distinctions between cooperatives and dispensaries. Likewise, the city is looking at a zoning ordinance rather than a full-out prohibition because California law is still unclear on if a permanent ban is legal. Under the bill adopted in August, cities can instead enforce through land use. If you go, the Planning Commission meets 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20 at City Hall, 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City.