BOARD OF SUPERVISORS TO CONSIDER MORATORIUM ON MEDICAL-MARIJUANA CLINICS

Medicine Or Menace?

When California voters legalized the medicinal use of marijuana in
1996, it forced city and county governments to decide whether they
would allow the establishment of medical-marijuana dispensaries
within their borders.

Santa Barbara has a city ordinance that allows and regulates such
dispensaries, but all other cities in the county have "just said no."

Santa Barbara County, however, has no law to prohibit or regulate
"pot clinics" in unincorporated areas, and a public outrcy was raised
recently when rumors circulated of attempts to open one in Santa Ynez
or Los Olivos.

After speakers in the audience at a December meeting demanded a ban,
the Board of Supervisors asked county staff members to bring back an
ordinance Jan. 19 to place a temporary moratorium on medical-marijuana clinics.

That should allow ample time to review the issue and find a solution,
perhaps involving changes in the county's land-use ordinances, said
3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr, who represents the Santa Ynez Valley.

"We are currently working on options to come back to the supervisors
for a temporary moratorium and potential ban," said Dianne Black,
director of development for county planning and development. "We are
taking a look at what other local jurisdictions and other counties have done."

County staff is gathering enough information to support a temporary
moratorium, which could last as long as a year, while they research
how to further regulate dispensaries, Black continued.

"All of a sudden the proliferation of dispensaries has alarmed a lot
of people. It only takes a few not doing the right thing to cause
some problems," Farr said.

"I share the same concerns by my fellow board members and the
community. Medical marijuana was an initiative passed by voters to
use for medical uses, however the problem is in the dispensing of it.
The initiative didn't go far enough to get a handle on it, and that's
what we have to look at in the land-use ordinance," Farr added.

Santa Barbara's city ordinance specifies areas of the city in which
pot clinics are permitted, in addition to setting rules on their operation.

The Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which became Section 11362.5 of
the California Health and Safety Code, says that "seriously ill
Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical
purposes" as long as they have a doctor's prescription, and says
doctors can't be punished for prescribing it.

But it makes no rules for obtaining pot or establishing dispensaries.

Instead, it says the act is "to encourage the federal and state
governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and
affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need
of marijuana."

Preservation of Los Olivos (POLO) organized a community meeting this
winter to advocate a county ban on pot clinics.

The Coalition to Promote Drug Free Youth, a volunteer group based in
Solvang, also supports a ban. It contends that marijuana is
addictive, and that allowing medical marijuana dispensaries would
give young people more access to the drug.

"Limiting access to alcohol, marijuana, tobacco for our youth would
reduce underage substance abuse," said Mary Conway of the coalition.

Farr said medical marijuana can provide relief for some extremely
sick people when no other medicine works for them, but that issue is
between patients and their doctors.

"One man who spoke at the last meeting said using marijuana was the
only source of relief for his mother, who has terminal cancer, which
I understand, so we will need time to examine the proper solution," Farr said.

At the supervisors' meeting in December, Santa Barbara County Sheriff
Bill Brown said medical marijuana dispensaries themselves are
attractive targets for criminals because they are seen as a soft
target with drugs and money on the premises.

However, when asked to provide statistics on crime involving legal
dispensaries in Santa Barbara County, the sheriff declined to
comment, and sheriff's spokesman Drew Sugars said the county had none.

"In terms of law enforcement, we are waiting until the Board of
Supervisors makes their final decision," said Sugars said.

A Santa Barbara Police Department spokesman said the city's one
dispensary that is legally operating under the latest version of its
ordinance has not been associated with any crimes.

However, a dispensary called Humanity at 715 Bond Ave., which had
permission to operate while it upgraded its operation to fit the new
ordinance, was shut down after police officers served seven search
warrants Jan. 7 at the business and the homes of six employees in
Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara, Goleta, Lompoc and Santa Maria.

According to the Santa Barbara Police Department, an undercover
investigation revealed that Humanity sold marijuana to a person who
presented a counterfeit medical marijuana recommendation, and his
identification was never checked and the medical marijuana
recommendation never verified.

Illegal dispensaries have also been shut down in various places,
including one in Buellton in 2007 and another in Santa Barbara in April 2009.

Unless the county adopts new regulations, a marijuana dispensary
could open, without any special permits, in any building that is
zoned for retail commercial use, according to Kim Probert of the
county planning department.

The Board of Supervisors meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19,
in the Board Hearing Room of the county Administration Building Board
at 105 E. Anapamu St. in Santa Barbara. The meeting will also be
broadcast live on government access cable channels.