TASK FORCE TO STUDY POT DISPENSARY ISSUES

San Diego will create a citizens task force to study how to regulate
medical-marijuana dispensaries, which have proliferated throughout
the city and stirred public safety concerns.

By a 6-1 vote yesterday, the City Council decided to form the task
force, with Councilman Carl DeMaio dissenting and Council President
Ben Hueso absent.

DeMaio and a half-dozen residents argued against the task force,
saying the state has issued guidelines that just need to be enforced.

Several cities in the county either have banned marijuana
dispensaries or put a moratorium on them pending regulation. In July,
San Diego suspended approvals for new dispensaries, but more have popped up.

We need to get these regulations in place. It's a wild west out
there," said Joshua Bilben, a San Diego resident who uses medical
marijuana to ease chronic pain.

Claudine Scott with the East Village Association told the council
that the city must strengthen its permitting process and give residents a say.

(The dispensaries) should go before the community to explain why they
are needed in the neighborhood," Scott said.

San Diego, like many cities, lacks land-use guidelines governing
where marijuana collectives or cooperatives may be located. Nothing
in the city's regulations prevent them from opening next to schools,
playgrounds or churches. Unlike liquor stores and adult businesses,
dispensaries are not required to go through the Police Department to
obtain permits before opening.

The council has set a deadline for the task force to return with
proposed regulations by the end of the year. The 11-person group,
whose members will be nominated by the City Council, is to include
residents affected by dispensaries, operators of dispensaries,
medical-marijuana patients, doctors and lawyers, among others.

A number of people who spoke at the meeting said state guidelines
should simply be enforced.

There are abuses," DeMaio said. "You don't perpetuate abuses by
having a task force look at a variety of nice ideas and options. You
address the abuses by enforcing the law and relying on the Police
Department to enforce the attorney general's clearly stated guidelines."

According to the guidelines, nonprofit pot collectives and
cooperatives serving legitimate patients are legal if they follow
rules, such as acquiring marijuana only from their members and
verifying medical necessity. For-profit dispensaries are not legal,
according to the state.

Several residents said dispensaries in their neighborhoods are
nothing but for-profit enterprises. One Mission Beach resident who
lives near a dispensary said he sees carloads of young people
patronize the business.

The number of stores is not going up because the number of patients
is going up," said Pacific Beach resident Scott Chipman. "The number
of stores is going up because of profit."

Chipman presented the City Council with a list of more than 60
dispensaries. That number is higher than the nine dispensaries that
are officially registered with the city, officials said.

[Sidebar]

REGIONAL SITUATION

Ten cities in the county have banned pot dispensaries or put a
moratorium on them.

Moratoriums:

Chula Vista

Imperial Beach

Oceanside

Bans:

El Cajon

Escondido

La Mesa

Lemon Grove

San Marcos

Santee

Vista