MEDICAL MARIJUANA ORDINANCE MOVES FORWARD IN EUREKA

The Eureka City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to introduce a
medical marijuana ordinance governing both the personal cultivation of
medical cannabis and distribution facilities located within city limits.

But, while the vote was unanimous, the sentiment was
not.

"I don't agree with any of this," Councilman Frank Jager said shortly
before the vote. "I know we need a drug house ordinance, but I don't
think we need dispensaries in Eureka."

However, Jager said that, in the spirit of cooperation, he would vote
to move the ordinance forward.

The city's proposed medical cannabis ordinance is loosely modeled
after Arcata's, and seeks to deal with the issue through a land-use
approach. The ordinance essentially splits the issue into two
categories: Cultivation for personal medical use and
dispensaries.

For personal use, the proposed ordinance would allow qualified
patients to grow marijuana only in their personal residences, with
grow spaces limited to 50 square feet. While the ordinance explicitly
states that medical marijuana can only be grown in the residence of
the qualified patient, it does allow caretakers to come into qualified
patients' residences to grow the cannabis for the patient.

The ordinance also requires that special wiring for medical marijuana
grows receive a permit from the city's building department, and that
lighting shall not exceed 1,200 watts.

Further, the ordinance prohibits the use of gas products, including
CO2 and butane, and requires that there be no external evidence of
medical marijuana cultivation at the residence.

Community Development Director Sidnie Olson explained for the first
time Tuesday the enforcement mechanisms that would come into play for
a residence that is believed to be out of compliance with the code.

Olson said if her department receives information that a residence is
out of compliance, it would contact the property owner through a
certified letter. If the property owner fails to respond to the letter
and schedule an inspection within seven days, Olson said the city
would begin the process of seeking an inspection warrant for the property.

After seven days of notification, Olson said the city would begin to
assess $50 daily fines on the property until it is inspected. Further,
Olson said there would be steeper fines for multiple offenders, and
scaled fines for more "egregious" land-use violations.

On the topic of dispensaries, the ordinance would allow a maximum of
four cultivation/production facilities to be permitted within city
limits, each of which would be allowed a maximum of two distribution
facilities. The ordinance would also allow the location of two other
distribution facilities in the city that produce their medical
marijuana elsewhere.

"The idea is that what's grown in Eureka gets distributed in Eureka,"
Olson explained, adding that dispensaries who grow their product
elsewhere would have to take a back seat to those that produce within
city limits.

Under the ordinance, the city council would appoint a subcommittee to
review requests for qualifications from prospective dispensaries to
determine which could operate within the city.

Based on comments from Laura Benedict, owner of Humboldt Medical
Supply, an Arcata dispensary, Councilwoman Linda Atkins made several
amendments to the proposed ordinance that was included in the city's
staff report.

First, Benedict asked that the council strike a staff recommendation
that would limit dispensaries to distributing to patients that have
state or county-issued medical marijuana identification cards.
Benedict said that the government-issued cards cost $175 a year, which
places a financial burden on patients.

Similarly, Benedict asked the council to strike a provision requiring
dispensaries to have their products tested for potency and chemicals.
She said there are no local testing facilities, and that samples need
to be hand-delivered, as it's illegal to ship them. She said the
testing requirement would add an additional layer of overhead costs
for dispensaries -- costs that would ultimately be passed on to
patients, many of whom Benedict said can ill afford added expenses.

"In this country, if you're really sick, you're really poor," she
said.

After some discussion, the council agreed to strike the identification
card requirement, and changed the ordinance so the testing requirement
wouldn't go into affect until January 2011, which it hoped would allow
a local testing facility currently in the county permitting process
time to open.

The council also asked Olson about whether patients would be allowed
to smoke medical marijuana in public -- with Councilman Larry Glass
asking if people would be allowed to smoke "hooters" on the Boardwalk
and Councilman Mike Jones asking if patients would be allowed to
"light up, torch up, blaze up or whatever they do" at the
dispensaries. Olson and others assured the council that public smoking
would be prohibited, and any dispensary not following the rules could
risk losing its conditional use permit.

The ordinance is due to come back before the council at its August 3
meeting for possible adoption.

After lengthy discussions on the city's budget and the medical
marijuana ordinance, the council voted to continue the balance of its
meeting agenda to a special meeting Thursday.