PISMO BANS MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

None Had Been Planned in the City, but Officials Decided to Take Action
Because Other Communities Had

Pismo Beach this week joined a lengthy list of California cities that have
passed measures to ban or restrict the opening of medical marijuana
dispensaries, to the frustration of a few local residents who asked the
City Council to wait a few months for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule this summer on whether patients have
the right to use marijuana for medical reasons, which local officials hope
will clear up conflicts between state and federal law.

Federal law prohibits the possession, cultivation and distribution of
marijuana. But in 1996, California voters approved the Compassionate Use
Act, which protects patients, their primary caregivers and physicians who
prescribe marijuana for medical treatment from criminal prosecution.

But while medical marijuana dispensaries have opened in Oakland, San
Francisco and other Northern California cities, most of the cities in San
Luis Obispo County have passed measures in recent months to keep that from
happening.

"This is about how we treat seriously ill and dying people," Marilee Hyman
of Pismo Beach told the council. "I really see this as a compassion
issue. .. Do you have compassion?"

Local residents who use marijuana as medicine would have to travel farther
to get it, unless they have a caregiver, some argue.

"It certainly makes it difficult on the patients," said Dale Gieringer,
coordinator for the California chapter of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Many of those people are driving ... three to
four hours from other parts of the state to get to ( cannabis ) clubs."

Pismo Beach City Manager Kevin Rice hasn't heard of anyone wanting to open
a dispensary in the city but started paying attention to the issue when San
Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach approved similar urgency
ordinances.

Paso Robles and Atascadero have established temporary bans.

In Pismo Beach, an immediate ban will go into effect for 45 days; Rice said
he'd recommend the council extend it for an additional 10 months while city
staff drafts a permanent ordinance.