POT DISPENSARIES FACE CITY RULES, FEDERAL CRACKDOWN

Raids and Regulations

As the operators of Santa Barbara's remaining medical marijuana
dispensaries braced themselves for possible federal raids, the
ordinance committee of the Santa Barbara City Council met on Tuesday
to grapple with how best to regulate the operation of such
facilities--legal under state law but federally
prohibited--throughout the city. Based on the remarks of the
councilmembers involved, the regulatory approach will consist of a
mix of the rules that currently guide the operation of pharmacies and
adult bookstores. Borrowing from similar ordinances in about nine
other California cities, city planners crafted a grab bag of proposed
regulations that received mixed reviews from medical marijuana
proponents and councilmembers alike.

Both sides seemed to agree that most dispensaries are already abiding
by the conditions of whatever ordinance City Hall will ultimately
adopt. The problem, said Councilmember Iya Falcone, is the five
percent of the population responsible for 95 percent of the problems.
Or as Councilmember Brian Barnwell stressed, there's strong support
for medical marijuana dispensaries, but not "the drift into
recreational drug consumption" that occurs at some of them.

To minimize that side effect, the ordinance's first draft imposes a
500-foot distance between dispensaries and any city parks or schools
to buffer school-age kids from exposure to these facilities. The
dispensaries would not be allowed to open next to private homes,
though it's unclear what distance would be required. The first draft
would not allow any pot dispensaries downtown on State Street or on
the Mesa. And while the language would have allowed such operations
in the industrial sections of town, Falcone and Barnwell strongly
opposed this, verbally painting pictures that evoked the gritty
"underworld" of Batman's Gotham City. Dispensaries would be allowed
downtown, however, and in some sections of outer State, and most
likely on Milpas Street.

Jennifer Nelson of Americans for Safe Access, a trade group
representing dispensary owners, chided city officials for ignoring
her offer to help draft the ordinance. She criticized many of the
specifics of the city's proposal, saying the 1,000-square-foot
maximum size was too small to accommodate customers who use
wheelchairs. Likewise, she rejected as "ridiculous" the city's
proposed prohibition against anyone with a misdemeanor moral
turpitude conviction working at dispensaries. Lyle Holmes, a medical
marijuana consumer on a fixed income, said the proposal to limit
customers to one visit a month would make it impossible for him to
benefit from marijuana's medicinal virtues, as he couldn't afford to
buy his monthly allotment in one lump sum. Attorney Albert Bifano
complained that the requirement that clients' medical records be made
available to city officials upon demand was too invasive.

"Our goal is to get to a no-big-deal situation, and I don't see how
this helps us get there."

For the most part, members of the ordinance committee echoed these
complaints. Why ban dispensaries from operating during federal
holidays, they asked, or keeping their doors locked at all times?
Councilmember Falcone suggested that such regulations would result in
a new generation of speakeasies. Councilmember Grant House suggested
the once-a-month rule would require customers to carry larger amounts
of cash and larger quantities of pot, potentially attracting
criminals looking to steal either. Speaking of some of these smaller
operational restrictions, House compared the dispensaries to
pharmacies, adding, "Our goal is to get to a no-big-deal situation,
and I don't see how this helps us get there."

The draft ordinance did not state what would happen to the
dispensaries currently in business and how long they would be allowed
to remain in their present locations. An attorney representing a
marijuana center estimated only six dispensaries were still
operating; that's down from the 13 that were open this summer, and
from the 20 for which City Hall has business permit applications.

Three months ago, the federal government conducted a "mail raid" on
medical marijuana dispensaries throughout Southern California,
sending letters to the property owners who lease space to
dispensaries that threatened to file criminal charges and seize their
properties. These letters prompted many owners to evict their
pot-distributing tenants. Additionally, dispensary operators find
themselves flinching at rumors about on-site federal raids. And no
matter what ordinance the City Council eventually adopts, it won't be
sufficient to shield local operators from the wrath of the Drug
Enforcement Administration.