MEDICAL POT DISPENSARIES WON'T COME TO VACAVILLE IN '10

Anyone concerned about medical marijuana dispensaries cropping up in
Vacaville can relax -- at least until next year.

That's when the emergency final extension of an ordinance regarding a
moratorium on such establishments, which the City Council unanimously
approved Tuesday night, expires.

The council also unanimously approved a staff report related to the
matter.

Talks regarding the dispensaries began last year. That May, the
council adopted a similar ordinance.

One month later, the ordinance was approved for an additional 10
months and 15 days.

The looming expiration date -- May 25 -- and the pending outcome of
medical marijuana legislation now moving through the courts pushed
officials to seek yet another extension.

That case, Assistant City Attorney Melinda Stewart explained, is being
heard in the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Anaheim and regards
whether local dispensaries can be banned from operating in
municipalities.

"We're awaiting a decision to give the city direction," Stewart
said.

Vacaville resident Katherine Caldwell urged the council to allow
dispensaries the right to operate within city limits. Proposition 215,
aka the compassionate Use Act of 1996, and Senate Bill 420, aka the
Medical Program Act of 2003 that clarifies the scope and application
of Proposition 215, were both voted in by the people, she pointed out.

"I just assumed it was a done deal," she said, admitting surprise that
governments would later "block the will of the people."

An 18-year resident of Vacaville, Caldwell said a back injury
sidelined her seven years ago, resulting in chronic hip and back pain.
In the last year, her doctor suggested alternative treatments,
including medical marijuana. Pot worked, she said.

The treatments, she added, aren't about getting high but about quality
of life.

"When you're dealing with excruciating pain, you are not getting
high," she advised. "You are getting (to) normal. I felt like I got my
life back."

Residents needing medical marijuana must now travel to other cities
for treatment, Caldwell said, when the money would be better spent in
Vacaville.