CITY LIMITS NUMBER OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

South Lake Tahoe Joins the Ranks of 64 Jurisdictions With Moratoriums
on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

Three's a crowd when it comes to medical marijuana dispensaries in
South Lake Tahoe, the City Council decided this week.

The Council voted 4-0 on Tuesday to enact a 45-day moratorium on the
establishment of new dispensaries within city limits. Councilman
Bruce Grego did not attend Tuesday's meeting.

The moratorium will give the city time to develop permanent
ordinances regulating the distribution of medical marijuana, said
City Attorney Patrick Enright in a Nov. 17 staff report to the City Council.

Three medical marijuana dispensaries -- Patient to Patient
Collective, Tahoe Wellness Collective and City of Angels 2 -- began
operating in South Lake Tahoe during the past year.

Representatives of the dispensaries have been supportive of the
moratorium and have signaled their intention to work with the city to
develop permanent regulations.

"I think its a good decision," said Gino DiMatteo, the owner of City
of Angles 2, outside Tuesday's meeting. "What everyone needs to
understand is (providing medical marijuana) is a privilege, not a right."

Strict regulation of medical marijuana distribution will ultimately
ensure the safety of providers, patients and the public, DiMatteo said.

In backing the moratorium, the City Council approved several interim
requirements for the existing dispensaries that will allow them to
keep operating.

To be exempt from the moratorium, a dispensary will need to have a
city business license, a California State Board of Equalization
seller's permit, a commercial or business insurance policy, evidence
to show the dispensary was in operation prior to Nov. 1 and attest to
being in compliance with the California Attorney General's November
2008 guidelines about lawful operation of marijuana collectives by
Dec. 4. The existing dispensaries also must provide a rental or lease
agreement for, or show ownership of, the location where they operate
by that date.

At Tuesday's meeting, the council denied a request by South Shore
resident Brian Spencer to extend the Nov. 1 deadline to Nov. 15 so a
medical marijuana delivery service he started within the past two
weeks could gain an exemption to the moratorium.

The council voted against extending the deadline, but Mayor Jerry
Birdwell assured Spencer that he would be able to discuss how a
delivery service should work as the city goes through the process of
developing permanent regulations surrounding medical marijuana.

The council will likely extend the moratorium by 10 and a half months
at the City Council's Dec. 8 meeting.

The South Lake Tahoe moratorium comes at a time when municipalities
throughout California are contemplating exactly how to regulate
medical marijuana, which was legalized by voters in 1996, at a local level.

Sixty-four jurisdictions have moratoriums regarding the establishment
of medical marijuana dispensaries, 29 have prohibited dispensaries
and 25 have enacted measures to regulate dispensaries, Enright said
in a Nov. 3 staff report to the City Council.

Several cities who enacted permanent bans on dispensaries have faced
legal challenges by medical marijuana advocacy groups.