MEDICAL POT RULES NEEDED

The county Board of Supervisors should heed recommendations by the
county Planning Commission regulating medical marijuana dispensaries.

If anything, supervisors could strengthen some of the principles
adopted by the commission -- but regulations are needed and soon.

The board may not take up Wednesday's recommendations until late
March, and it's possible new medical pot dispensaries may bud before
then. At least seven medical marijuana collectives are known to
county officials.

The county, unfortunately, has been somewhat helpless to deal with
dispensaries, which have been a proliferating problem in many cities
and counties throughout California. Cities as different as San Jose
and Los Angeles have found they had to enact limits as more and more
dispensaries sprung up.

The city of Santa Cruz, long known as extremely tolerant of marijuana
use, limited the number of dispensaries in the city to two, despite
criticism from medical pot providers.

We're not arguing legal medical pot isn't beneficial, but the truth
is there can be a whiff of illegality surrounding the movement,
mainly because of a few bad operators and specious claims by drug dealers.

Responsible dispensaries should be permitted -- but regulated.

Planning commissioners want a development permit for pot operators
before opening up shop -- and that they're set up as nonprofit
collectives located within commercial and medical office zones.

Commissioners also recommend pot shops maintain a distance of at
least 600 feet from all schools and 800 feet from other dispensaries.

If a dispensary wants to open within 300 feet of a residential
neighborhood, the applicant has the burden of convincing the county
the operation won't be disruptive. Employees and volunteers would be
allowed to use marijuana during certain times at the shops, with a
doctor's permission.

The proposed rules could be tough for some existing marijuana
operations to comply with, and the commissioners are advocating these
shops be given a year to make sure they're conforming to the new rules.

Supervisors may be pressured to make a couple of changes in the
proposed rules. One, from medical pot operators, would be to drop the
recommendation that collectives also be located at least 600 feet
away from preschools.

The other would be to increase the distance from schools and preschools.

Supervisors should uphold the preschool limits. As for the overall
school distance, state guidelines are 600 feet. If that turns out to
be a problem, the distance can be revisited.

But that's not as important as simply getting regulations in place.