CATHEDRAL CITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS POT DISPENSARY BAN

City Attorney Charles Green is expected to introduce today at
Cathedral City's City Council meeting an ordinance banning medical
marijuana dispensaries in the city.

The council voted 3-2 during its study session April 22 to direct
Green to draft a law to that effect.

Councilmen Greg Pettis and Paul Marchand voted against a possible ban.

Prohibition is not in the best interest of our residents," Pettis said Tuesday.

At the April meeting, Pettis said medical marijuana should be
legalized under federal and state laws, and he added the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration should regulate medical marijuana to allow
patients to get it from pharmacies.

Councilman Chuck Vasquez countered that crime follows medicinal
marijuana dispensaries.

The negative byproducts of dispensaries could include armed robbery,
murder, drug dealing, sales to minors, loitering, heavy vehicle and
foot traffic in retail areas, and increased noise, according to the
"White Paper on Marijuana Dispensaries" by the California Police
Chiefs Association's Task Force on Marijuana Dispensaries. The
information was included in a city staff report.

The ordinance Green will present tonight is one of two that would ban
dispensaries from operating within the city, the report shows. The
meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

The ordinance would declare establishing, maintaining or operating a
medical marijuana dispensary a "public nuisance" and an "unlawful
use" in Cathedral City.

If the council passes the ordinance, there will be a second vote on
it at a future meeting ­ as the council does on other ordinances. If
approved again, the new ordinance would go into effect 30 days later.

The second ordinance, which is scheduled to go before the Cathedral
City Planning Commission on May 20, would prohibit establishing
medical marijuana dispensaries in any of the city's zoning districts.

Once the Planning Commission makes its recommendation, council
members will vote on the ordinance, City Manager Don Bradley said.

Though council members may take the planning commissioners'
recommendation into account, the council has the final say.