DISPENSARY ZONING GOOD IDEA FOR CHICO

The Chico City Council has decided to write a zoning ordinance for
medical marijuana dispensaries.

It's about time.

If a club or dispensary is run correctly, it would be a safe place
where people with illnesses could go and get their medicine without
fear of robbery, fraud or violence.

On the other hand, without rules to start with, Chico could end up
like Los Angeles, which passed a medical marijuana ordinance more
than four and a half years after the City Council started to discuss
the issue and resulted in the closure of nearly 500 establishments.

The biggest problem in complying with state law, ironically enough,
has been the law authorizing marijuana for medical use.

Proposition 215 gave patients the right to medical marijuana for
specific illnesses or "any other illness for which marijuana provides relief."

In California, marijuana can be recommended for anything from cancer
to a headache.

Even though California voters have not voted to legalize marijuana,
state medical marijuana laws, as they are written, allow practically
anyone to qualify for a prescription.

While it is legal to use weed if you have a prescription, selling or
distributing marijuana is prohibited, which causes problems for
people who either can't or don't grow their own product.

Eventually, we believe there will be some form of marijuana
dispensary here in town, but as long as it's away from children and
is responsibly run we see no need to marginalize the people who have
prescriptions.

There should be some thought as to where these dispensaries are and
close attention should be paid to how they are run. However, the City
Council doesn't need to follow in the footsteps of some cities and
zone them out of existence.

We would also point out that this is a zoning ordinance - not
operating permits for businesses that sell weed.

There's a long way to go before anything concrete comes before the
Chico City Council, and we're sure there will be plenty of public
comment before anything gets passed.

However, we can't forget the biggest issue here isn't the legal
trading of pot, but illegal.

It is a bit of a process to get a prescription and it is far easier
to get weed on the street. Having these clubs in town would make the
legal pot industry more controlled, which is good for those people
who buy weed legally.

Still, it does nothing to cap the crimes by the dealers and growers
who do things under the radar.

But for now, this is a good first step.