COUNTY OUTLAWS POT SHOPS IN UNINCORPORATED AREAS

Board of Supervisors OKs Restrictive Medical Marijuana
Ordinance

SAN BERNARDINO In a swift 5-0 vote, the San Bernardino County Board
of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a land-use policy outlawing medical
marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas.

The move follows years of demands by medical marijuana advocates for
county regulations permitting the facilities and a 21-month moratorium
on dispensaries while county planners researched the issue.

The approved ordinance bans dispensaries, including what some patients
refer to as collectives, in unincorporated areas with limited
exceptions to state-run providers and hospitals. It also limits
personal medical marijuana growing to indoors only, under the premise
that outdoor plants could invite vandals or thieves.

Because the county's 24 cities have all placed permanent or temporary
bans on dispensaries, medical marijuana advocates argue the new county
policy effectively cuts off the legal distribution of cannabis locally.

The county Board of Supervisors green-lighted the measure without
discussion, following more than two hours of public comments during
which a couple dozen medical marijuana advocates said they strongly
opposed the policy.

The majority of medical marijuana proponents argued for regulations
but not a "ban" and protested limiting personal cultivation to indoors.

Wanda Smith, a medical marijuana patient of Phelan, told county
supervisors the ordinance would eliminate the chance at safe, local
access to marijuana and result in more residents turning to drug
cartels and illegal methods to get their medicine. She added that on
an $800 monthly fixed income, she can't afford the electricity and
supplies needed to grow her own marijuana indoors.

"I don't have money to get a greenhouse even if it's plastic," she
said. "I don't think it's wise that the board puts this ordinance
through. It bans a whole group of people in your county ... and we're
sick. There may be some that are not sick. That's for the law to
figure out. The ones of us that are sick, we need our access."

The motion to OK the ordinance was made by 1st District Supervisor
Brad Mitzelfelt, who represents the High Desert and previously said
he'd favor banning dispensaries.

"As I've said from the beginning of this whole debate, I felt that
unincorporated areas are the least appropriate place to have
dispensaries because by definition unincorporated areas are less
policed than incorporated areas," Mitzelfelt said by phone after
Tuesday's meeting.

He said the ordinance was "simply an exercise in the county's police
power to protect local communities from land uses that could have
undesirable side effects."

Like county planners and some law enforcement officials, Mitzelfelt
said he believes medical marijuana dispensaries would lead to
increased crime, blight and illegal drug use in their surrounding areas.

Medical marijuana proponents have argued that research on medical
marijuana facilities is inconclusive and dismissed a 2009 white paper
by the California Police Chiefs Association blasting dispensaries as
being politically motivated. Some have challenged the legality of the
ordinance.

California voters legalized marijuana for certain medical purposes in
1996 through Proposition 215.

But the county and local municipalities have pointed to the fact that
any use of marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

San Bernardino County had resisted issuing medical marijuana
identification cards under that argument until 2009, shortly after the
U.S. Supreme Court rejected their challenge. The county has since
issued 689 medical marijuana cards, about 443 of which are still
active, according to county documents.

Mitzelfelt expressed frustration that the federal government hasn't
done more to intervene on the issue. He added he believes the county's
land-use ordinance will help prevent the region from becoming a mass
producer of marijuana.

"We already have inherent incentives, such as a lot of forest land,
such as a lot of open spaces, a large geographic area with less police
per square mile, lots of sunshine ... It makes it an attractive place
to cultivate marijuana on a commercial scale for distribution to the
rest of the state and other states," he said. "And so the last thing
we should be doing, in my opinion, is sending out a message that we're
a place where these kind of activities are taken lightly."