YUCAIPA CITY COUNCIL TO WEIGH MARIJUANA DISPENSARY BAN

Yucaipa city staff is recommending that the City Council turn a
moratorium on the approval of medical marijuana dispensaries into an
outright ban.

If the council agrees when it meets Monday night, Yucaipa will follow
in the path of other Inland cities that have issued bans or
moratoriums on their approval.

The Beaumont City Council banned medical marijuana dispensaries in
April and one month later, set a 45-day moratorium on the approval of
medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives. Staff told the council
they needed time to research the issue. The council then agreed to
extend the moratorium to one year in June.

Specifically, Beaumont's moratorium is on "the approval of the
collective cultivation and/or distribution of medical marijuana within
the city."

Also in June, the Hemet City Council established a one-year moratorium
on medical marijuana dispensaries. Loma Linda and Menifee did the same
in late July.

And on Tuesday, San Bernardino County supervisors approved a one-year
moratorium on dispensaries in the county.

Riverside County bans medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated
areas.

This isn't the first time the Yucaipa City Council has tackled this
issue. The council approved a one-year moratorium on medical marijuana
dispensaries in May 2008.

A staff report to the Yucaipa City Council states that although state
Prop. 215, the Compassionate Use Act from 1996, gave qualified
individuals the right to possess, use and cultivate marijuana for
their own medicinal purposes, the distribution of marijuana remains
illegal.

The report states that the city's municipal code prohibits issuing
business licenses to entities that engage in illegal activity.
According to staff, the result has been an indirect ban on
dispensaries in Yucaipa.

The report concludes: "To ensure that this ban is not overlooked by
staff responding to requests for information, it would be helpful to
have language in the Municipal Code that would make it unequivocally
clear as to the City's position on this issue, and so staff is
proposing to add language to the Code in order to reduce the
possibility of any misunderstandings in this regard."

The council meets at 6 p.m. in its chambers at Yucaipa City Council,
34272 Yucaipa Blvd.