COMMITTEE TURNS IN RECOMMENDATIONS, BUT SOME ON COUNCIL AREN'T RECEPTIVE

More battles loom over medical marijuana

The city's ad hoc committee on medical marijuana wrapped up its work
Thursday, although the debate is far from over.

Over the past few months, the committee hammered out a proposed zoning
ordinance that it will now send to the City Council for review at a
July 19 meeting.

But some on the council have already indicated that the proposed
ordinance doesn't stand a chance in its current form, setting the
stage for more contentious debate at the council level. The council
has the final say on where medical marijuana businesses can locate.

The committee, which had members adamantly opposed to and in favor of
medical marijuana, recommended a zoning ordinance that limits where
medical marijuana can be grown, manufactured and sold commercially.
The ordinance also contains strict limits on the kinds of signs that
the businesses can use.

Under the proposed ordinance, medical marijuana retail businesses
would be allowed only in community commercial, highway commercial,
central business district and controlled industrial zones, and only
after a special review by the council.

That means that businesses where medical marijuana is sold would have
to go through a lengthy approval process with the city before being
allowed to open. None of the businesses would be allowed within 300
feet of a residential zone.

Medical marijuana growing operations would be allowed only in
controlled and heavy industrial zones, while medical marijuana
manufacturing operations would be allowed only in highway commercial,
controlled industrial and heavy industrial zones.

The proposed ordinance doesn't affect medical marijuana patients who
grow their own plants or providers, called caregivers, who don't
operate a commercial business.

The businesses aren't allowed within 1,000 feet of a school, park,
church, cemetery, day care or other public facility. And growing
operations aren't allowed within 300 feet of those places.

Existing businesses that don't conform to the proposed rules would
have four years to find a new, legal location. Also, signs that show
words, symbols or pictures related to medical marijuana wouldn't be
allowed, either.

Everyone on the committee voted in favor of the recommendations except
Cary Smith, a Republican state representative from the West End. Smith
and his wife, Susan, strongly oppose the state's medical marijuana
law, and Smith often clashed with others on the committee who were in
favor of allowing the businesses in the city.

"These businesses are near our homes and schools, and we need to zone
them out of our state entirely," Susan Smith said during the meeting.

Others testified that Montana was scaring away new residents who
didn't want anything to do with medical marijuana. Committee member
Vince Ruegamer, who is a city councilman, shot back at those comments
and said the city will keep pushing for a compromise.

"To threaten that people won't live here, that's OK. I don't care,"
Ruegamer said. "We'll deal with this marijuana thing."