Indecision Strikes Again

HOTCHKISS CHANGES MIND; MED POT MEASURE BACK IN LIMBO

The tenuous peace that broke out two weeks ago over a compromise
medical-marijuana ordinance has gone up in smoke, as Santa Barbara
City Council member Frank Hotchkiss has announced that he's changing
his vote and will push for an outright ban instead.

What makes Hotchkiss's change of heart so striking is that he sits on
the Ordinance Committee that crafted the compromise language, which
he voted for after exacting many tougher restrictions on how and
where medical marijuana dispensaries could operate.

Without Hotchkiss's support, the proposed ordinance -- all but
approved two weeks ago -- lacks the five-vote super-majority required
for passage.

Given that there aren't five votes for the ban Hotchkiss is pursuing,
the regulatory future of dispensaries remains uncertain.

For the time being, the existing ordinance -- approved two years ago
- -- will hold sway even though seven council members have agreed it's
inadequate.

Now entering his sixth month on the council, Hotchkiss has
alternately voted in favor of allowing as may as seven dispensaries
within city limits -- that's two more than the compromise language
would allow -- as well as for an outright ban. On the Ordinance
Committee, he emerged as a horse trader and deal maker, trading his
vote of support for more stringent regulations. Since the vote two
weeks ago, Hotchkiss said he was surprised to discover that the
exactions he won did not win support from the anti-pot coalition,
growing bigger and more passionate with each passing week. "Everybody
I talked to thought it was a bad idea," he explained. "Everybody --
people trying to get off drugs, the school superintendent, the Boys
and Girls Club, the Police Officers Association -- everybody."

Procedurally, Hotchkiss said he'll ask his council colleagues to
reconsider their vote from two weeks ago. As part of the prevailing
majority, he is entitled to do so within certain time deadlines.
Should he succeed, that opens the door for reconsideration of a ban.
But should he fail to garner the four votes necessary for a
reconsideration -- and it's likely he'll only get the support of
councilmembers Dale Francisco and Michael Self -- then Hotchkiss can
vote against final adoption of the ordinance.

Either way, the compromise measure appears doomed.

Councilmember Bendy White, who served on the Ordinance Committee with
Hotchkiss, expressed frustration that so much time -- 20 hearings in
the past two years -- had been spent deliberating about medical
marijuana, when so many other pressing issues were clamoring for
council attention.

White acknowledged that medical marijuana has elicited an unusual
degree of passion and intensity. "We may not be able to do anything
about the oil spilling in the Gulf; we may not be able to do anything
to stop jihadists from hating us; but we can ban medical marijuana
from retail distribution," he said. "This is a tunnel into the
anxiety and angst people feel about their children and their sense of
safety." While White did not support a ban, he did push for an even
more restrictive compromise measure -- three dispensaries allowed
rather than five -- that the council seemed to embrace.

Hotchkiss said he's hoping to woo Mayor Helene Schneider into
supporting a ban, but based on Schneider's recent remarks, that's not
too likely.

Schneider spent the Memorial Day weekend in Morro Bay and was struck
by how little effect such bans actually have. "The weekly paper (the
San Luis Obispo New Times) had ads all over the place for
dispensaries and doctors who prescribe medical marijuana, and this in
a place that theoretically does not allow dispensaries," she said.
Schneider has argued in the past that dispensaries address a pressing
need for people dealing with medical crises.

Hotchkiss and Councilmember Francisco both said they knew nothing
about rumored plans to place a ban on next November's ballot.
Francisco said he had heard talk about initiating a recall against
councilmembers who supported medical marijuana dispensaries, but
cautioned that such recalls are politically difficult, and that the
intensity of community outrage was not yet sufficient to propel such an effort.

In the meantime, the L.A. Times and USC released the results of a new
statewide survey showing that 49 percent of respondents favored the
statewide initiative on the November ballot that would legalize
marijuana for recreational use and give city and county governments
responsibility for regulating and taxing its sale. Forty-one percent opposed.

Support was strongest among younger voters, males, and Democrats. But
a majority of married women opposed the measure, a demographic that
strategists for both sides agree will be crucial for political
success come the fall.