POT DISPENSARY BAN GOING BACK TO BUTTE SUPERVISORS

OROVILLE -- Almost two years to the day after they first voted to ban
medical marijuana dispensaries in Butte County, county supervisors
will find the topic back on the agenda for their Jan. 10, 2012 meeting.

On Jan. 12, 2010, the supervisors voted in favor of a temporary ban
on dispensaries that was later extended. This Oct. 25, the board
voted to make the ban permanent.

Almost immediately afterward, opponents began a petition drive
seeking to have it removed from the county code.

Wednesday, Butte County Clerk-Recorder Candace Grubbs announced the
petitioners had collected enough signatures to certify their petition.

On Nov. 22, petitions containing 12,039 signatures were turned in to
the county. Grubbs said after her staff examined 500 signatures as a
test, the petitioners had collected a projected 9,703 valid
signatures, easily qualifying the referendum.

The petitions needed a minimum 7,605 valid signatures.

Thursday, Kathleen Moghannam, assistant clerk of the Board of
Supervisors, said the referendum will be put on the agenda for the
board's first meeting of the new year.

A certified referendum gives the supervisors two choices: put the
matter before the public for a vote, or rescind the ordinance.

Butte County Attorney Bruce Alpert has stated repeatedly that
dispensaries have never been legal in Butte County, with or without
the ordinance.

Under the zoning code, any land use that is not specifically allowed
is prohibited, he has said.

Andrew Merkel, formerly a dispensary operator and one of the leaders
in the fight against the dispensary ordinance, was not immediately
available for comment Thursday, but in the past he has said the
public deserves the right to vote on the ordinance.

In early September, supervisors voted to send to the voters an
earlier referendum against the county's stringent ordinance
restricting where medical marijuana could be cultivated in the county.

That will be on the June 2012 primary election ballot.