CITIES, COUNTY TRY TO REIN IN GREEN RUSH

The green rush of medical-marijuana co-ops opening around Shasta
County in the past few months was bound to spur a backlash, and it
has.

Joining the cities of Anderson and Shasta Lake, which have recently
passed moratoriums on medical-marijuana shops, the Shasta County Board
of Supervisors will take up a temporary, 45-day ban on new
dispensaries at next Tuesday's meeting, in response to the opening
last week of Your Cottonwood Collective on Main Street in the south
county town.

Openly supplying marijuana in Cottonwood? Truly a dam has broken, and
local officials are right to keep an eye on the flood.

Even if the co-ops are complying with state law, which their operators
will no doubt strive to do if they mean to stay in business, not even
zealous legalizers can sanely advocate the unregulated spread of
dispensaries anywhere someone sees fit to open one. The trade, even if
legal, has real potential effects on the character of neighborhoods
where it takes root. It makes sense to give law enforcement, planning
officials and ordinary residents their say on how co-ops should fit
into our cities and towns, how they should handle signage, security
and, yes, on-site smoking.

Otherwise, as Carla Thompson, Shasta Lake's development services
director, wrote in advocating that city's moratorium, "it is possible
that a proliferation of dispensaries could operate 24 hours per day, 7
days per week."

Since the Obama administration announced it would not use federal
resources to pursue medical-marijuana users and dispensaries that
comply with state law, the business has come out in the open. That's
not a bad thing, in itself.

At the same time, shops selling what is still only a quasi-legal drug
surely can stand being regulated at least as carefully as a 7-Eleven.

Our view: It is wise to pause and think about where marijuana co-ops
belong.