CORTE MADERA APPROVES MORATORIUM ON MEDICAL POT DISPENSARIES

No new medical marijuana dispensaries will be opening in Corte Madera
- -- at least for the next month and a half -- after the Town Council
unanimously approved a moratorium on the pot clubs.

At a Nov. 8 special meeting, the council joined Fairfax and other
Marin municipalities and passed a moratorium on medical marijuana
dispensaries before an audience of just two Redwood High School
students there for a class assignment and Twin Cities police Chief
Todd Cusimano, Mayor Carla Condon said.

"It was the most logical solution to maintain the town's control over
land use," Condon said. "At the present time, a medical marijuana
dispensary is not a permitted use according to our town policy and
zoning codes. The moratorium simply provides further clarification."

Corte Madera is involved in a lawsuit with Marin Holistic Solutions,
a dispensary that opened in an office complex on Tamal Vista
Boulevard last year. Going Green dispensary also opened in the same
complex in 2009 but moved out over the summer after its landlord
became concerned about possible litigation with the town, manager Kim
Pelham said at the time.

In May, Corte Madera's Planning Commission began considering an
ordinance regulating medical marijuana dispensaries that would have
allowed Marin Holistic and Going Green to apply for licensing.
However, the Town Council then voted 4-0 during a June 1
closed-session discussion to authorize cease-and-desist letters that
warned the clubs to stop operating by June 25, Town Attorney Jeffrey
Walter said at the time.

On July 16, Walter filed a complaint in Marin Superior Court
requesting preliminary and permanent injunctions to stop Marin
Holistic from storing, cultivating or distributing medical marijuana,
which the town says are not permitted uses under current zoning code.
A hearing on the preliminary injunction is set for Dec. 20.

"It's belt and suspenders," Walter said of the moratorium. "We
already have a ban but we're making it doubly clear that these
operations are not permitted in Corte Madera."

But Corte Madera's new moratorium won't affect Marin Holistic at this
point, said Scot Candell, an attorney representing the dispensary.

"It doesn't affect the facility that's open now," Candell said. "It
prohibits anyone from opening a new dispensary."

Nonetheless, should Marin Superior Court Judge James Ritchie decide
Marin Holistic didn't open legally as the town contends, the business
would no longer be exempt from the moratorium, Walter said.

San Rafael resident Darren Foti, a member of Americans for Safe
Access, said Corte Madera's decision "doesn't surprise me."

Foti said such measures should instead go before an unbiased Marin
County commission rather than letting proponents or opponents of
medical marijuana call the shots.

"The people that are pushing the agendas don't know anything or have
a very strong bias for or against medical marijuana," Foti said,
noting that he's tired of NIMBY attitudes about dispensary locations.

Laurie Dubin, a Larkspur resident and Redwood High School parent who
has been a vocal opponent of the Corte Madera dispensaries, praised
the moratorium.

"Now that the California voters have soundly rejected legalization of
recreational use of marijuana through Proposition 19, I am gratified
our town is taking action to reject de facto legalization through
so-called medical marijuana dispensaries, which are largely a sham
and abuse the Compassionate Use Act," Dubin said.

Going Green's Pelham, who said in September she planned to reopen her
dispensary in a permanent space but wouldn't specify where, couldn't
be reached for comment Thursday.

In October, Fairfax, home to the 13-year-old dispensary Marin
Alliance for Medical Marijuana, passed a similar 45-day moratorium on
new pot clubs. The council voted 4-0 Wednesday to extend the
moratorium another six months, with Councilman Larry Bragman abstaining.

Mill Valley and Sausalito also have moratoriums on their books, and
in 1997 San Rafael and Larkspur banned medical marijuana dispensaries
as an "allowable use" in their cities.

The Corte Madera council will consider extending its moratorium on
dispensaries at a meeting in December, Walter said. The extensions
may continue for up to two years.

Town employees are researching the issue for future council
discussion on whether to regulate rather than ban medical marijuana
dispensaries, a move cities such as San Francisco, San Mateo and
Berkeley have taken, Walter said.