LAKE ELSINORE OKS MORATORIUM ON GROWING MEDICAL MARIJUANA

LAKE ELSINORE - City Council members voted unamimously Tuesday to
impose a 45-day moratorium on legal marijuana-growing operations in
Lake Elsinore while officials decide how to regulate such activities.

Council members said the time was needed to make sure a moratorium is
properly implemented.

"I think our staff needs the time to better digest this," Councilman
Robert Magee said.

The vote came after several speakers told the council that the use of
marijuana has helped relieve pain caused by cancer and other ailments.

Speaker James Stacy said California voters have authorized the use of
marijuana for medical purposes and called the proposed moratorium
inappropriate.

But Mayor Melissa Melendez said "we are in compliance with the law."

The proposal for the moratorium was brought before the council in
response to a request for a business license to operate a legal
marijuana-growing operation in the city. The move gives the city
staff 45 days to study how to regulate marijuana-growing activities
and to return to the council with more information.

The business license was sought by Robert Riedel, co-founder of
Mother Earth's Alternative Healing Cooperative in Fallbrook, who
wants to operate the growing facility in an industrial area near
Skylark Airport.

Lake Elsinore's municipal codes and general plan do not discuss
marijuana manufacturing activities, how they are regulated or where
they can be located.

The city prohibits the establishment of medical marijuana
dispensaries but allows the possession, use and cultivation of
medical marijuana in accordance with state law, according to a staff report.