News Brief

RATHER THAN CREATE GUIDELINES

SANTA BARBARA - Rather than create local guidelines, the city's Ordinance
Committee said the City Council should lobby state and federal officials to
clarify rules on using marijuana as medicine.

The council was expected to consider Tuesday's recommendation within a month.

If the council agrees, it would torpedo local efforts to establish
guidelines on medicinal marijuana use, cultivation, arrests or seizures
within city limits. A cannabis club that distributed medical marijuana in
Santa Barbara disbanded earlier this year. Activists want to resurrect the
club.

Medicinal marijuana supporters led by activist Bruce Rittenhouse came to
City Hall a year ago, urging an ordinance to implement Proposition 215,
which legalized pot for medical use. The 1996 statewide initiative earned
support from 70 percent of city voters.