COUNCIL EXTENDS MEDICAL-MARIJUANA BAN

YUCCA VALLEY -- The Town Council Thursday night approved extending a
45-day moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries or its
distribution at existing businesses an extra 10 months and 15 days.

Deputy Town Manager Shane Stueckle said staff members hope to be
ready to submit their findings on the issues to the Planning
Commission in February or March, and to have a second reading of a
ordinance on marijuana dispensaries ready for the council by June at
the latest.

The moratorium first was approved at the council's Dec. 11 meeting.

With all of the complex issues involved, council members thought the
extra months granted in the extension would enable the planning
commission to examine alternatives and provide guidance to staff on
sensitive land uses, appropriate zoning districts for dispensaries
and their buffer zones, how to handle existing uses that become
non-conforming through new zoning, and how to prevent problems that
could result if dispensaries are located in the town.

They asked for the moratorium in response to the controversy over
California Alternative Medicinal Solutions and its present location
in the Monterey Business Center. The acupuncture clinic and marijuana
dispensary sits next to the Desert Ballet Center and Yucca Valley
Karate, two studios that offer classes designed for youngsters.

At the Dec. 11 meeting, Deputy Town Manager Shane Stueckle said CAMS
will be allowed to stay open at that location because its owners had
"conformed to the regulations in place at the time they established
their business and obtained their business license in the Town."

Staff also found the CAMS location is legal under California land-use laws.

At Thursday's meeting, Patricia Bristow, owner of Desert Ballet,
spoke during the public hearing. "The problem as I see it is
location," the woman said. "We've been in business there for the last
20 years. They've said they will open when classes are not in
session, but this is not working for us."

The next speakers were not as restrained. "They cannot close the
dispensary because of you!" Patricia Williams shouted at the council
members. "How do you know people aren't high when they're pulling
into the parking lot? Because of you, children could get ahold of
this. Because you put a moratorium in place they can stay here." She
continued by excoriating last month's meeting attendees as Landers
residents having criminal drug charges.

Parent Lori Green came armed with a bulging binder of complaints and
documents about drug abuse and crimes like robberies and shootings.

Green, too, lambasted the previous meeting's audience members as
out-of-towners who don't pay taxes in Yucca Valley but are pushing a
pro-pot agenda. She also accused the council of complicity with the
destruction of morals and of not taking their oaths of office seriously.

William Green asserted that even if he had cancer and lived in pain,
he wouldn't jeopardize the health and morals of the community by
insisting on using medical marijuana.

He also disparaged the audience members from last month. "Look at the
speakers who were here. They didn't just start smoking medical
marijuana -- they've been smoking since they were teens! I want
children to live drug free as guaranteed by the United States Constitution."

Wrestling with the complex issues of state and federal law, Mayor
Frank Luckino said to attorney Naomi Silvergleid, "I always thought
that federal law trumped state law."

Silvergleid replied the council must deal with land-use issues.
"Municipalities don't have to figure out what trumps what," she said.

Sheriff's station Capt. Donnie Miller said his department doesn't
support Proposition 215, the "medical marijuana" initiative that was
made state law 12 years ago.

He noted the County of San Bernardino is in litigation over its
refusal to uphold the proposition.

A medical marijuana advocate recently filed a suit against the county
to compel it to issue medical marijuana identification cards.

The mayor, a parent himself, voiced his sensitivity to influences on
young children, and said, "There is an element sort of floating
around" the dispensary.