MILL VALLEY EXTENDS POT BAN

The Mill Valley City Council voted last night to extend the city's
temporary ban on medical marijuana dispensaries until June 2006.

Mill Valley officials want time to research, prepare and draft a
medical marijuana law for the city.

During the next 10 months they will look at laws adopted by other
cities and counties around the state to help them craft their own.

They will also advise the City Council on the recent U.S. Supreme
Court case on medical marijuana - which held that federal law
overrides any state law allowing medical use of pot - and determine
how the ruling applies locally.

In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, which allows the
use of medical marijuana for patients who have a recommendation from
a physician. Meanwhile, federal law prohibits the cultivation,
possession and distribution of marijuana.

Once a Mill Valley law is developed, the public will get an
opportunity to comment on it, officials said.

The Mill Valley moratorium was enacted when the city received an
application to open a medical marijuana club in the city.

There are none there now.

A bid in May by Capitol Compassionate Care Co-op of Fort Bragg to
sell marijuana in Sausalito led to passage of a similar moratorium by
the Sausalito City Council.

Marin's only medical marijuana club is the Marin Alliance for Medical
Marijuana in Fairfax.