TEMPORARY MORATORIUM SOUGHT ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

City to vote on a temporary ban on medical pot dispensaries Tonight
the City Council will vote on an urgency ordinance for a temporary
moratorium to prevent the establishment and operation of medical
marijuana dispensaries.

The moratorium, if passed, lasts 45 days, but can be extended to ten
months and 15 days, and as long as a year.

The urgency was triggered by a business license application from
Flash Gordon of Fairfield.

"I have several friends who benefit from the use of medical marijuana
where as other drugs, like Oxycontin, didn't provide relief," Gordon
told The Democrat Tuesday.

He sees a need for this kind of service in Yolo County.

The application was promptly denied after it was submitted Aug. 21,
because of zoning issues.

Thomas Wendt, a health care professional and herbalist and owner of
Amana Essentials, said, "I periodically have patients asking for
where to go for medical marijuana. I don't treat cancer, but I do
have cancer patients."

People also go to Wendt to get treatment for the side effects of chemotherapy.

"I have no idea where to send them. I have no information for them,"
Wendt said.

In an e-mail response from Woodland Health Care, the president of the
Medical Group, Dr. Carol Kimball said, "It is against Woodland Clinic
Medical Group policy to prescribe marijuana."

Woodland resident, Bobby Harris, helped local governments in Humboldt
County regulate medical marijuana access and dispensaries. Harris,
who ran for the council in 2008, utilizes medical marijuana for his
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and alcoholism. He was arrested in
1990 for cultivation. The case was dismissed in 2008.

"I'm honest about it because people should understand," he said.

Harris doesn't think store front dispensaries are the answer. He
wants to see safe, secure, and affordable ways for patients to access
cannabis. He said a store front would drive up costs.

Harris thinks an important part of Proposition 215, the California
law making medical marijuana legal, is that it's meant to be
affordable. He said Woodland should define affordable and put a price
cap on medical cannabis.

Harris said he wants to see a means of outreach and distribution, in
the form of a nonprofit collective.

The city's staff report cited studies showing an increase in crime
around areas of medical marijuana dispensaries. The staff report also
said some cities faced legal challenges in preventing the
establishment and operation of dispensaries, but as of yet none have
been struck down by a court.