SACRAMENTO SUPERVISORS OUTLAW MEDICINAL POT DISPENSARIES IN THE COUNTY

Sacramento County supervisors said they wanted to make it unambiguous
that they won't permit medical marijuana dispensaries.

So board members passed a county zoning amendment that fails to
include the words "medical" or "marijuana" or "dispensaries."

Instead, supervisors are seeking to bring an end to the county's once
teeming medical marijuana trade by denying business permits to
establishments that conflict with "either state or federal law, or
both" under a new policy approved Tuesday.

The board's action comes after aggressive code enforcement efforts
and threats of federal prosecution or property seizures shuttered all
but a handful of marijuana stores in the county's unincorporated
communities.

Officials said medical marijuana outlets were never permitted under
county zoning laws. But that didn't stop as many as 99 dispensaries
from opening in the past two years.

So board Chairwoman Roberta MacGlashan said supervisors voted 4-1
Tuesday "to clarify our existing ordinance" because it "didn't address
marijuana dispensaries."

Even though the amended zoning code still doesn't, MacGlashan said the
supervisors' vote now effectively bans marijuana stores by making it
"clear we don't allow any use that is inconsistent with federal law."

The vote came after counsel Michelle Bach and other staffers told
supervisors the only local land use they know of that conflicted with
federal law is medical marijuana.

Supervisor Phil Serna, the lone dissenting vote, said his colleagues
took an unnecessary action given the county's already "robust code
enforcement" against dispensaries.

Serna said the vote effectively bans both marijuana stores and
cultivation in the county. He protested it "foreclosed the
opportunity" to negotiate zoning rules to accommodate seriously ill
medical marijuana users.

The vote came after county staff advised supervisors of a state 2nd
District Court of Appeal decision in October that said the city of
Long Beach could not license dispensaries because of federal marijuana
laws and a District Court ruling in November upholding a city of
Riverside ban on pot stores.

In addition, supervisors had an Oct. 7 press release by California's
four U.S. attorneys that announced enforcement efforts "aimed at
curtailing the large, for-profit marijuana industry that has
developed" in California in violation of U.S. law.

Supervisors also faced a procession of angry speakers Tuesday,
including people saying they used marijuana for cancer or pain. One,
Dr. Davis Allen, a physician who recommends cannabis, charged
supervisors were violating the rights of voters who passed the 1996
Proposition 215 medical marijuana law.

"If the California citizens voted to make marijuana medicine, it's
your duty to facilitate that," Allen said.

Orangevale resident Jeanne Larsson, who runs A Therapeutic Alternative
dispensary in the city of Sacramento, said the county only enabled a
deluge of unregulated pot clubs by failing to accept a limited number
of dispensaries and impose operating rules as the city did.

"Your lack of attention and fear of regulation helped create an
atmosphere where not-so-responsible collectives (dispensaries) could
thrive," Larsson said.

County officials said Wednesday that only seven dispensaries remain
open in the incorporated region. They are the Common Roots Collective
on 52nd Avenue, Elevated Collective on 65th Street, Touch of Earth on
Auburn Boulevard, Herbal Connoisseur on Kitty Lane, Kingston Wellness
on Sunrise Boulevard, Magnolia Wellness on Greenback Lane and Arcade
Health and Wellness on El Camino Avenue.

County lawsuits for zoning violations are pending against Herbal
Connoisseur and Magnolia Wellness, and Arcade Health and Wellness is
due to close by court order Monday, officials said.