RED BLUFF EXTENDS BAN ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA OUTLETS

RED BLUFF - With little discussion, the Red Bluff City Council on
Tuesday night unanimously extended a ban on medical marijuana
collectives, cooperatives and dispensaries through next fall.

The action, good for 10 months and 15 days, follows an initial 45-day
"urgency" prohibition adopted Nov. 3.

More than a dozen speakers showed up at the community center to
comment on the ban, most of them opposing the council's anticipated
action.

Donna Will, a Tehama County resident and longtime medical marijuana
advocate, argued the council's action was in conflict with
Proposition 215, known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. The
voter-approved initiative permits medical marijuana use for people
with a doctor's prescription.

"It's the right of the people of California to have this," she said.
"It was the people who voted for this."

But Diana Thompson, one of four people who spoke in favor of the
extension, expressed concern over potential health problems
associated with cannabis.

"What we're really doing to ourselves is Third World medicine," she
said.

Statements from speakers often prompted applause or jeers from those
assembled, filling roughly half the seats provided.

But after the council's vote on the motion by Councilman Forrest
Flynn, some opponents huddled in pairs to carry on their
discussions.

Meanwhile, a separate ordinance that originally called for a
permanent ban on cultivation and dispensing marijuana in the city has
been tabled while the council studies its options.