DISPENSARY OPERATORS CALL FOR CANNABIS SAFETY TESTS

Subcommittee Accelerates Drafting Of New Medical Cannabis Dispensary
Ordinance

City leaders trudged ahead with crafting a new medical cannabis
dispensary ordinance on Tuesday. During the hour and a half lunchtime
meeting, in-depth discussions on each subsection prevented progress
beyond two pages of the 28 page draft ordinance written by City
Attorney Jeffrey Walter.

In the name of expediency, Public Safety Subcommittee members Mike
Menesini and Lara DeLaney set up another meeting next Monday, July 12
at 6 p.m. to continue the vetting process.

Similar to recent Public Safety Subcommittee meetings, several
potential dispensary operators were in attendance, offering wording
advice and anecdotal information. While some audience members took
issue with certain aspects of Walter's suggested version, such as
placing a cap on the amount of patients allowed to be served each
month, there were no objections raised to allowing a Martinez
dispensary to open in general.

Menesini, DeLaney and City Manager Phil Vince made it clear that
whomever would be licensed to establish a Martinez dispensary would be
chosen through a competitive bid process.

Walter launched the meeting by recapping a memo he wrote to the
Subcommittee regarding the necessity of amending the City's Zoning
Code due to changes between the existing dispensary ordinance and the
new one.

When the City Council voted to allow dispensaries to operate within
the City limits in 2000, it was based on operators receiving a
conditional use permit via the Planning Commission.

The new ordinance abandons the conditional use permit process in favor
of a licensing procedure, dispensed through the City Manager's Office.

However, as Walter pointed out, "there will still need to be some
provisions spelling out where these MCDs [medical cannabis
dispensaries] can be located within the City's limits," because the
existing ordinance, expected to be entirely repealed and replaced,
specified dispensaries can only be located in commercial zoning
districts, and state law mandates that "any amendment to a zoning
ordinance that 'removes or modifies any [zoning] regulation
theretofore imposed' must be adopted in the same manner prescribed for
the adoption of the zoning code in the first place."

At the May 18 Public Safety Subcommittee meeting, Menesini suggested
the permitted zones for a MCD be expanded to include 'light
industrial,' but not if it complicated the approval process overall.

Walter's responded to this concern on Tuesday by saying "given that
doing away with the conditional use permit process as it pertains to
MCD's will by itself trigger Planning Commission involvement, it
appears that expanding the permitted zones in which MCD's may be
located will not have a measurable effect on the time it takes to
process the MCD licensing and zoning ordinances."

The Subcommittee heard new input from Janet Weiss, M.D., who
introduced herself as a physician who specializes, and is board
certified, in public health and preventative medicine, medical and
environmental toxicology and pathology. She accompanied Robert Martin,
Ph. D. of the Collective Wellness of California, a prospective
Martinez dispensary operator.

Weiss urged the Subcommittee to include a "safety-monitoring program
that encompasses a formal chain of custody from farm to patient ... the
states of Rhode Island, New Hampshire and New Jersey already require
this testing in their medical cannabis legislation. California lags
behind in this regard - an omission that can be remedied at the local
level," Weiss said.

Turning to the draft ordinance itself, the Subcommittee elected to
strike a provision restricting the maximum patients served on a
monthly basis at 500, as well as the amount of product a dispensary
can keep on hand.

A lengthy discussion centered around what kind of security and
admission protocols should be required. Menesini argued against a
suggested provision that dispensary doors should be locked at all
times, as well as a provision insisting the facility's bathrooms
remain locked as well.

His stance was based on a fire safety perspective, but others
dismissed this, asserting that the entrance and exit doors of other
Bay Area dispensaries are equipped with one-way locks.

Despite his concern with fire safety, Menesini wasn't happy with the
draft ordinance overly prescribing rules regarding facility management.

"I don't think the ordinance should get into such detail, the people
responsible for the business operations are going to implement their
own rules," said Menesini.

Next week the Subcommittee will continue with its vetting of the draft
ordinance, moving on to physician recommendations as to whether the
dispensary should have an evaluating physician onsite and the
confidence of patient records.