LONG BEACH WEEDS OUT MORE MEDICAL MARIJUANA SITES

LONG BEACH - Nine more Long Beach medical marijuana sites will shut
down under proposed amendments supported Tuesday by the City Council,
leaving 28 total locations for dispensing or growing the drug.

The council reached a late-night compromise, voting not to fully
support changes to the city's medical marijuana law that had been
pushed by three council members, but still adding some new
restrictions for marijuana collectives.

Most notably, the council didn't restrict marijuana cultivation to
industrial areas nor limit the number of collectives allowed
throughout the city, but it did create buffer zones around parks.

The council voted 7-2 to rewrite the law that it had approved in
March, adding to existing rules that include prohibitions against
collectives operating near schools, in residential areas or within
1,000 feet of each other, and a requirement that they must grow their
marijuana within the city limits.

Supporting a compromise proposed by Councilman Robert Garcia, the
council added several new rules, which were based off of a more
stringent proposal by council members Gary DeLong, Gerrie Schipske and
Patrick O'Donnell.

"I think what's being proposed tonight is overly restrictive,"
Councilman Robert Garcia said of the original proposal.

"We are talking about patients, and these are people that have been
prescribed medicine and they have a right to access that medicine."

Under DeLong, O'Donnell and Schipske's proposal, collectives would
have been allowed to grow marijuana only in industrial areas; wouldn't
have been able to operate within 1,000 feet of libraries, child-care
centers and parks; and would have been restricted to 18 operations
citywide and two per council district. Under Garcia's proposed
restrictions that were approved by the council:

Collectives must submit audited financial statements and their annual
state sales tax report to the city.

Collectives only be open from 9 a.m. to 7p.m. daily (this is a change
from the original proposal that collectives close at 5 p.m.)

There will be a 45-day public review period followed by a hearing in
front of the council for new marijuana collective applications, rather
than just a public hearing.

No collectives will be allowed within 1,000 feet of
parks.

Security cameras will be required on the outside of collective
buildings.

A one-year moratorium on new collectives will go into
effect.

DeLong calculated during the meeting that the changes would eliminate
nine of the existing 37 marijuana sites.

O'Donnell and Councilman James Johnson voted against the motion
because they wanted a stricter policy. Johnson said he feared that
without limiting the number of collectives, certain parts of the city
might end up with a proliferation of collectives.

"I just don't think it's fair for certain parts of the city to bear
the potential burden of potential nuisance activity while others
don't," Johnson said.

Tuesday's action requires the City Attorney's Office to rewrite the
ordinance, but the council will have to vote on it two more times,
giving the council two more chances to tweak the law.

Collective operators had already threatened to take legal action if
the council changed the ordinance, and that had been one of the
concerns of some council members going into the meeting.

Still, one question that concerned Councilwoman Rae Gabelich was how
the city will be able to reimburse the collectives for their permit
fees, which were $14,700 for a single collective, but that increased
to $25,000 for those that had a separate cultivation site.

Long Beach officials used that marijuana permit revenue - over
$700,000 in all - to help end the last fiscal year with a balanced
budget.

"We couldn't tell you tonight where the money would come from on
that," City Manager Pat West told the council.

Collective operators had mixed feelings about the new rules after
Tuesday's meeting. Some were relieved that their collectives won't be
affected, while others, such as Judi Farris, who runs Long Beach
Natural Solutions collective at 726 W. Willow St., feared that more
changes are to come.

"They (the council) can just keep doing it and doing it until there's
no one left," Farris said.