IF MEDICAL POT PASSES, TOWN EYES 2-OUTLET LIMIT

If voters approve Proposition 203 in November, Marana should limit the
number of medical marijuana dispensaries within its borders to two,
the Marana Planning Commission is recommending to the town council.

Planners are sending along a proposal from Town Attorney Frank Cassidy
that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries as conditional uses in
Marana's regional commercial, light industrial and heavy industry
zones. Offsite medical marijuana cultivation would be allowed in
Marana's agricultural, light industrial and heavy industry zones. The
proposed rule also imposes special setback, performance and
application requirements.

Cassidy has vocally urged Marana decision-makers to put medical
marijuana regulations in place as soon as possible. Already, he told
the planning commission at its Sept. 29 meeting, companies are "lined
up to get into this business" should Prop 203 pass on Nov. 2. If
Marana does not enact restrictions, "I am concerned we would not be
able to close that door," Cassidy said. "I have urged the town to be
very proactive on this."

"How many could we be looking at?" planning chairman Norm Fogel asked.
"Shouldn't it be prudent of us to set a limit?"

"An outright prohibition . probably exceeds the authority," Cassidy
said.

Statewide, Proposition 203 would allow a total of 120 medical
marijuana dispensaries in Arizona, with the requirement of at least
one in every county, and the possibility of one for every 10 pharmacies.

If there are 120 dispensaries spread across Arizona's estimated
population of 6 million, that would mean one for every 50,000
residents, town staff concluded. As of July 1, 2009, the U.S. Census
Bureau estimates Marana has a population near 35,124.

"The question is, is this necessary?" commission vice chairman Gary
Pound asked.

"It is," Cassidy believes. "There's nothing to keep five of them from
coming here if we don't adopt the regulation."

"We're looking at one or two, realistically, if at all," Pound said.
"It seems it's self-limiting, by the number of permits the state's
going to issue. I don't know why we need to limit it."

Cassidy said some Arizona communities are "waiting" for the results of
the election, and the subsequent effective date of the law. "I'm not
that comfortable with that," he said.

"I just don't want to have Marana," and its invitation to "come grow
with us," become "a joke," Fogel said. "There's no benefit I can see
at all."

"There is no economic benefit to the town from this at all?" Pound
asked.

"It does not appear," Cassidy said.

One medical marijuana dispensary would likely preclude private
marijuana growing in Marana, engineer Keith Brann said. As proposed,
people with medical marijuana prescriptions who live more than 25
miles from a dispensary could grow their own marijuana.