LAKE ELSINORE COUNCIL TAKES UP MARIJUANA MORATORIUM EXTENSION

Lake Elsinore council members Tuesday will consider extending the
city's moratorium on businesses that can legally grow, package and
distribute marijuana.

In December 2009, the council approved a 45-day moratorium on such
activities, then extended it for a little more than 10 months. The
current ban runs out Dec. 20, according to the city.

If approved, the extension sought Tuesday will continue until Dec.
20, 2011 -- but would be the last one the council could authorize,
city staff said.

The moratorium initially was put in place after Robert Riedel, a
co-founder of Mother Earth's Healing Alternative Cooperative in
Fallbrook, applied for a business license to operate a
marijuana-growing business in an industrial area near Skylark Airport.

The operation would have produced marijuana for the cooperative but
the application was turned down.

A business that legally grows marijuana would be different than a
dispensary or cooperative that sells marijuana to people who can
legally use if for medical reasons.

The city currently prohibits dispensaries and cooperatives.

The city does allow the possession, use or cultivation of medical
marijuana in accordance with state law.

City staff has been working since the moratorium first was put in
place to determine how the city could regulate such operations. But
more time is needed to review some issues that have been identified,
officials said.

The issues include heating and ventilation standards, safety, fire
suppression measures and occupancy.

The city also needs research operations in other cities to determine
what problems, if any, could occur because of a marijuana-related facility.

In recommending the moratorium's extension, City Attorney Barbara
Leibold wrote there still remains uncertainty regarding the effect of
federal and state law with respect to marijuana growing businesses.

Leibold also said her office had been waiting for a ruling in the
case of Qualified Patients vs. City of Anaheim by the Fourth District
Court of Appeal.

But an appeals court ruling in August sent the case back to the trial
court. In that case, Qualified Patients is challenging Anaheim's 2007
ban on medical marijuana dispensaries.